Abstract
During blueberry scorch virus (BlScV) surveys of highbush blueberries in Italy between 2005 and 2010, we initially discovered infected orchards only in Piedmont. Since 2009, however, three infected orchards have also been found in Trentino, where a new host species, Vaccinium ashei, was found to be infected by BlScV. Molecular characterization of isolates during the study period suggests that two very distinct epidemics are now present in Italy: the Piedmont isolates belong to a new BlScV strain, whereas the Trentino isolates are almost identical to the Washington State strain.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Altschul SF, Madden TL, Schaffer AA, Zhang JH, Zhang Z, Miller W, Lipman DJ (1997) Gapped BLAST and PSI-BLAST: a new generation of protein database search programs. Nucleic Acids Res 25:3389–3402
Bernardy MG, Dubeau CR, Braun A, Harlton CE, Bunckle A, Wegener LA, Lowery DT, French CJ (2005) Molecular characterization and phylogenetic analysis of two distinct strains of Blueberry scorch virus from western Canada. Can J Plant Pathol 27:581–591
Bristow PR, Martin RR (1987) A virus associated with a new blight disease of highbush blueberry. Phytopathology 77:1721–1722
Bristow PR, Martin RR, Windom GE (2000) Transmission, orchard spread, cultivar response, and impact on yield in highbush blueberry infected with Blueberry scorch virus. Phytopathology 90:474–479
Cavileer TD, Halpern BT, Lawrence DM, Podleckis EV, Martin RR, Hillman BI (1994) Nucleotide-sequence of the carlavirus associated with blueberry scorch and similar diseases. J Gen Virol 75:711–720
Ciuffo M, Pettiti D, Gallo S, Masenga V, Turina M (2005) First report of Blueberry scorch virus in Europe. Plant Pathol 54:565–565
Hudgins E (2000) Survey of blueberry scorch virus in highbush blueberries in British Columbia. Can Plant Dis Surv 81:144–147
Pansa MG, Tavella L (2008) Aphid population dynamics on highbush blueberry in relation to the spread of Blueberry scorch virus in Piedmont (NW Italy). Bull Insectol 61:205–206
Rastgou M, Habibi MK, Izadpanah K, Masenga V, Milne RG, Wolf YI, Koonin EV, Turina M (2009) Molecular characterization of the plant virus genus Ourmiavirus and evidence of inter-kingdom reassortment of viral genome segments as its possible route of origin. J Gen Virol 90:2525–2535
Raworth DA, Schade D (2006) Life-history parameters and population dynamics of Ericaphis fimbriata (Hemiptera: Aphididae) on blueberry, Vaccinium corymbosum. Can Entomol 138:205–217
Raworth DA, French CJ, Lowery DT, Bernardy MG, Bouthillier M, Mathur S, Chan CK, Foottit RG, Maw E, Wegener LA, Sweeney M (2008) Temporal trends in the transmission of Blueberry scorch virus in British Columbia, Canada. Can J Plant Pathol 30:345–350
Saitou N, Nei M (1987) The neighbor-joining method—a new method for reconstructing phylogenetic trees. Mol Biol Evol 4:406–425
Stretch AW (1983) A previously undescribed blight disease of highbush blueberry in New Jersey. Phytopathology 73:375
Tamura K, Nei M, Kumar S (2004) Prospects for inferring very large phylogenies by using the neighbor-joining method. Proc Natl Acad Sci USA 101:11030–11035
Tamura K, Dudley J, Nei M, Kumar S (2007) MEGA4: molecular evolutionary genetics analysis (MEGA) software version 4.0. Mol Biol Evol 24:1596–1599
Thompson JD, Gibson TJ, Plewniak F, Jeanmougin F, Higgins DG (1997) The CLUSTAL_X Windows Interface: flexible strategies for multiple sequence alignment aided by quality analysis tools. Nucl Acids Res 25:4876–4882
Wegener LA, Punja ZK, Martin RR (2004) First report of Blueberry scorch virus in cranberry in Canada and the United States. Plant Dis 88:427–427
Wegener LA, Martin RR, Bernardy MG, MacDonald L, Punja ZK (2006) Epidemiology and identification of strains of Blueberry scorch virus on highbush blueberry in British Columbia, Canada. Can J Plant Pathol 28:250–262
Wegener LA, Punja ZK, Martin RR (2007) First report of Blueberry scorch virus in black huckleberry in British Columbia. Plant Dis 91:328–328
Acknowledgments
This research was supported by a grant from the Regione Piemonte (MIRVI 2008-2010) in collaboration with DIVAPRA, Entomology Department, University of Turin, and Consorzio Ricerca e Sperimentazione per L’Orticoltura Piemontese (CReSO). We wish to thank CReSO for providing technical and orchard assistance. Thanks are also due to Alessandro Frontuto (Ufficio Fitosanitario Provinciale di Trento) and Daniele Pettiti for their help with identification of the infected orchards.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Additional information
M. Moretti and M. Ciuffo contributed equally to this paper.
Electronic supplementary material
Below is the link to the electronic supplementary material.
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Moretti, M., Ciuffo, M., Gotta, P. et al. Molecular characterization of two distinct strains of blueberry scorch virus (BlScV) in northern Italy. Arch Virol 156, 1295–1297 (2011). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00705-011-1018-8
Received:
Accepted:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00705-011-1018-8