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ARS Home » Pacific West Area » Corvallis, Oregon » Horticultural Crops Research Unit » Research » Publications at this Location » Publication #323291

Title: Blueberry fruit drop disease associated with a novel member of the Caulimoviridae

Author
item Martin, Robert
item DIAZ-LARA, ALFREDO - Oregon State University

Submitted to: Meeting Abstract
Publication Type: Abstract Only
Publication Acceptance Date: 2/2/2016
Publication Date: 4/10/2016
Citation: Martin, R.R., Diaz-Lara, A. 2016. Blueberry fruit drop disease associated with a novel member of the Caulimoviridae. Abstract for: XI International Vaccinium Symposium, April 10-14, 2016, Orlando, Florida.

Interpretive Summary:

Technical Abstract: Recently, a nearly 100% fruit drop symptom has been observed in several fields of cv. Bluecrop, in the Fraser Valley in Washington, U.S.A. and British Columbia, Canada. Also, it was observed that young leaves showed a transient red coloration of the veins during the bloom period and the corolla of the flowers exhibited some red striping. After bloom the plants appear normal until about three weeks prior to harvest, when the fruit drops. Prior to harvest, affected bushes can be identified easily since they stand upright. Using Rolling Circle Amplification, enzymatic digestion, cloning and primer walking, a novel virus was isolated and sequenced from samples showing symptoms described above. Using BLAST, it was found that the obtained sequence had a high degree of homology with Dahlia mosaic virus and Cauliflower mosaic virus, both viruses belonging to the family Caulimoviridae. The new virus (provisionally named Blueberry fruit drop associated virus) had a genome of 9850 bp, which is the largest caulimovirus known. The genome codes for a single ORF that shares 50% amino acid sequence identity with Strawberry vein banding virus over 24% of the ORF. Detection primers were designed based the on virus sequence, which amplified a 350 bp amplicon and confirmed the presence of the virus from symptomatic plants but not from healthy plants. In field tests of 66 plants, 31/31 symptomless plants tested negative for the virus and 35/35 plants with fruit drop symptoms were positive for the virus, which demonstrates a good correlation between symptoms and infection with this virus. The impact of this virus in cultivars other than ‘Bluecrop’ is unknown.