© Benaki Phytopathological Institute
Abstracts - 16th Hellenic Phytopathological Congress
41
ceptible varieties by affecting fruit quality.
During a survey conducted in sweet cher-
ry orchards for the presence of closterovi-
ruses, one sample in which LChV-1 and -2
could not be detected with specific prim-
er pairs, showed positive reaction in
Closter-
ovirus
infection using a generic nested RT-
PCR. Sequencing and comparative analysis
of the product amplified with the generic
assay revealed the presence of a virus dis-
tantly related to the known LChV-1 isolates
and therefore it was further characterized.
A 7.100 nucleotide part of the virus genome
was determined including the Helicase
(partial), RNA depended- RNA polymerase
(RdRp), the small hydrophobic protein (p4),
the HSP70 homolog, the 61kDa protein and
the capsid protein (CP). High sequence di-
vergence was found compared to the oth-
er known LChV-1 isolates which was ranging
from 7-10% in the RdRp and up to 29-35% in
aminoacids in the p61 protein. Phylogenetic
analysis using part of the HSP70h, RdRp and
CP genes of several Greek isolates with oth-
ers indicated the presence of different evo-
lutionary clades. The effect of the genetic
recombination in LChV1 evolution is under
investigation.
Epidemiology and genetic characterization of criniviruses associated with
tomato yellows disease in Greece
C.G. O
RFANIDOU
1
, C. D
IMITRIOU
,
1
L.C. P
APAYIANNIS
,
2
, 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, Plant Pathology Laboratory, GR-541 24,
Thessaloniki, Greece.
2
Agricultural Research Institute, P.O. Box 22016, Nicosia 1516,
Cyprus
Tomato infectious chlorosis virus
(TICV) and
Tomato chlorosis virus
(ToCV) are transmit-
ted by whiteflies in the semi-persistent
manner and are associated with yellows
disease in tomato crops in Greece. In 2009-
2012, an extensive survey was conducted in
order to identify the presence of these vi-
ruses in open field and greenhouse tomato
crops. Moreover, the presence of TICV and
ToCV was also investigated in a number of
other vegetable crops that showed mild yel-
lowing symptoms and in weed species (re-
gardless of symptoms); whiteflies were also
collected for typing from the affected crops.
For the detection of TICV and ToCV a nest-
ed multiplex RT-PCR was used, while white-
fly identification was done by real time RT-
PCR. In total, 1206 tomato, 4 lettuce, 1339
weed samples (42 different species, 17 fam-
ilies) and 1041 adult whiteflies were collect-
ed. In tomato crops, results revealed the
prevalence of TICV (87%) over ToCV (13%),
a fact that signifies the direct correlation
of their distribution with the whitefly-vec-
tor species that prevails in each geograph-
ic area. Weeds seem to play a significant role
in the epidemiology of both viruses as 26
species belonging to 15 different families
were found to be infected with TICV or/and
ToCV. It is worth mentioning that for the first
time in Greece lettuce plants showing mild
yellowing symptoms were found infected
with ToCV. Finally, sequence analysis of the
CP and CPm genes from tomato and weed
isolates of ToCV and TICV showed that their
populations show very low intraspecies ge-
netic diversity.
Tomato yellow leaf curl disease in the eastern Mediterranean basin: virus
species, incidence, hosts and transmission properties
L.C. P
APAYIANNIS
1
, A. P
ARASKEVOPOULOS
2
and N.I. K
ATIS
3
1
Agricultural Research Institute, P.O.Box 22016, Nicosia 1516, Cyprus.
2
Directorate
of Agriculture, Plant Protection, GR-245 00 Kyparissia, Messinia, Greece.
3
Aristotle
