© Benaki Phytopathological Institute
Abstracts - 16th Hellenic Phytopathological Congress
39
LChV-1 was detected in sweet cherry or-
chards in Greece. Due to the high intraspe-
cies diversity of LChV-1, which can result in
unreliable virus detection, we developed
a new molecular assay which detects all
LChV-1 isolates. For that purpose, several se-
quences of Greek LChV-1 isolates were ob-
tained with a generic nested RT-PCR, which
amplifies the 5΄part of the HSP70h gene
(500 bps) of closterovirids. These sequences
were aligned with others available in the da-
tabase and new degenerate primers, ampli-
fying a 200 bps product within the gener-
ic nested RT-PCR amplicon, were designed.
The new assay exhibited a broader detec-
tion range when compared with other avail-
able methods and it was also able to detect
the virus in sweet cherry trees throughout
the year. Surveys conducted with this assay
in stone fruit orchards has shown that LChV-
1 was present in sweet cherry (70/162), plum
(2/82), peach (1/54) and sour cherry (2/5)
while it was not detected in almond (0/126)
and apricot trees (0/7).
Complete nucleotide sequencing and genome analysis of
Eggplant
mottled dwarf virus
(EMDV)
P.G. P
APPI
1
, C.I. D
OVAS
2
, K.E. E
FTHIMIOU
1
, V.I. M
ALIOGKA
1
, N.I. K
ATIS
1
1
Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Faculty of Agriculture, Forestry and Natural
Environment, School of Agriculture, Laboratory of Plant Pathology, GR-541 24
Thessaloniki, Greece.
2
Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Faculty of Veterinary
Medicine, Laboratory of Microbiology and Infectious Diseases, GR-541 24
Thessaloniki, Greece
Eggplant mottled dwarf virus
(EMDV) is en-
demic in the Mediterranean region since
the end of 60’s. However, it remains one of
the less studied members of the genus
Nu-
cleorhabdovirus
in the family
Rhabdoviridae
.
The virus has a broad host range including
cultivated and ornamental plants. Until re-
cently, only a small part of the glycoprotein
gene of EMDV was sequenced. Thus in this
study, the full nucleotide genome sequence
was determined, which is 13.093 nucleotides
(nts) long. The negative sense, single-strand-
ed RNA of the virus contains seven ORFs,
which are organized in the order 3’-5’ as N-X-
P-Y-M-G-L, where N encodes the 52.0 kDa nu-
cleocapsid protein, X an unknown 10.8 kDa
protein, P the 32.5 kDa phosphoprotein, Y a
putative 31.7 kDa movement protein, M the
27.7 kDa matrix protein, G the 69 kDa glyco-
protein and L the 221.7 kDa polymerase. Ad-
ditionally, the genome also contains 198 and
90 nts long untranslated leader and trailer
sequences, respectively. The untraslated re-
gions among the virus genes appear highly
conserved and were used as a tool for the de-
termination of the virus genome sequence.
Phylogenetic analysis confirmed the classifi-
cation of EMDV among nucleorhabdoviruses
and showed its close evolutionary relation-
ship with
Potato yellow dwarf virus
(PYDV).
Study of the genetic variability of
Eggplant mottled dwarf virus
(EMDV)
P.G. P
APPI
1
, C.I. D
OVAS
2
, K.E. E
FTHIMIOU
1
, V.I. M
ALIOGKA
1
and N.I. K
ATIS
1
1
Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Faculty of Agriculture, Forestry and Natural
Environment, School of Agriculture, Laboratory of Plant Pathology, GR-541 24
Thessaloniki, Greece.
2
Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, School of Veterinary
Medicine, Laboratory of Microbiology and Infectious Diseases, GR-541 24,
Thessaloniki, Greece
Eggplant mottled dwarf virus
(EMDV) has a
wide host range including cultivated (
So-
lanaceae
,
Cucurbitaceae
) and ornamental
plants. Although the entire genome of a vi-
