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ARS Home » Northeast Area » Washington, D.C. » National Arboretum » Floral and Nursery Plants Research » Research » Publications at this Location » Publication #343791
Research Project: Detection, Identification, and Characterization of New and Emerging Viral and Bacterial Diseases of Ornamental Plants

Location: Floral and Nursery Plants Research

Title: First report of a typical calico-associated isolate Peach latent mosaic viroid from calico disease-affected peach trees in Korea

Author
item CHO, IN-SOOK - Rural Development Administration - Korea
item KIM, SUNG-JONG - Rural Development Administration - Korea
item KWON, SUNG-JUNG - Rural Development Administration - Korea
item CHUNG, BONG-NAM - Rural Development Administration - Korea
item Hammond, John
item LIM, HYOUN-SUB - Chungnam National University

Submitted to: Plant Disease
Publication Type: Peer Reviewed Journal
Publication Acceptance Date: 12/3/2017
Publication Date: 5/17/2018
Citation: Cho, I., Kim, S., Kwon, S., Chung, B., Hammond, J., Lim, H. 2018. First report of a typical calico-associated isolate Peach latent mosaic viroid from calico disease-affected peach trees in Korea. Plant Disease. https://doi.org/10.1094/PDIS-12-17-1913-PDN.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1094/PDIS-12-17-1913-PDN

Interpretive Summary: Virus and viroid disease cause losses in yield and quality in a wide range of horticultural crops, including ornamentals and fruit trees. Foliar symptoms in peach trees were observed in peach trees in Korea resembling ‘peach calico disease’ previously reported from Europe and North America. The causal agent associated with the disease in Korea was identified as Peach latent mosaic viroid, and two sequence variants were both found to include an insertion typical of isolates associated with peach calico disease from other countries. Detection of isolates of Peach latent mosaic viroid in Korea associated with peach calico disease will allow screening of peach propagation material to prevent further spread of the disease in commercial orchards in Korea.

Technical Abstract: Peach latent mosaic viroid (PLMVd), a member of the genus Pelamoviroid in the family Avsunviroidae, causes yellow, chlorotic mosaic symptoms; delays foliation, flowering, and ripening; and causes deformed and discolored fruits. In June 2016, naturally infected peach trees (Prunus persica (L.) Batsch) cv. Akatsuki showing severe chlorosis of leaves, stems and fruits were observed in Gyeongsan, South Korea. These symptoms were similar to peach calico (PC) disease induced by PLMVd reported previously. Leaf tissue samples were collected individually from four symptomatic plants in the same commercial field. The presence of PLMVd was confirmed by RT-PCR using total RNAs and specific primer pairs RF43 and RF44. The expected PLMVd PCR fragments of ca. 350bp were obtained and directly sequenced from all the samples tested. Two distinct sequences, identified as PC-K1 (two trees; LC311883) and PC-K2 (two trees; LC311884) were obtained, with 93 and 91% identity to PLMVd isolate PC-C40 (AJ550912) respectively. The two strains were 349-350 nt like PLMVd isolates with the 12-14 nt hairpin insertion causing PC symptoms (348-351 nt). To our knowledge, this is the first report of PLMVd inducing peach calico of peach trees in Korea.