First Report of Hippeastrum mosaic virus in Hippeastrum sp. in Greece

HomePlant DiseaseVol. 100, No. 4First Report of Hippeastrum mosaic virus in Hippeastrum sp. in Greece PreviousNext DISEASE NOTES OPENOpen Access licenseFirst Report of Hippeastrum mosaic virus in Hippeastrum sp. in GreeceI. Malandraki, A. Driessen, C. Varveri, and N. VassilakosI. Malandraki, A. Driessen, C. Varveri, and N. VassilakosAffiliationsAuthors and Affiliations I. Malandraki , Benaki Phytopathological Institute, Laboratory of Virology, 14561 Kifissia, Greece A. Driessen , Benaki Phytopathological Institute, Laboratory of Virology, 14561 Kifissia, Greece; and HAS University of Applied Science, 5223 DE's-Hertogenbosch, The Netherlands C. Varveri N. Vassilakos , Benaki Phytopathological Institute, Laboratory of Virology, 14561 Kifissia, Greece. Published Online:29 Feb 2016https://doi.org/10.1094/PDIS-09-15-0957-PDNAboutSections ToolsAdd to favoritesDownload CitationsTrack Citations ShareShare onFacebookTwitterLinked InRedditEmailWechat The Hippeastrum genus (family Amarylidaceae, common name "Dutch amaryllis") comprises approximately 90 species including 600 hybrids or cultivars, and many species have been exploited as ornamentals due to their big, impressive flowers (Alexandre et al. 2011). In the fall of 2013, mosaic symptoms consisting of irregular light and dark green areas were observed on leaves of ∼2.5% of 2,000 Hippeastrum hybridum plants of various cultivars originating from an ornamental nursery in Attica (Greece). Extracts derived from symptomatic leaves from individual plants of six Hippeastrum cultivars were used to mechanically inoculate a series of virus experimental hosts, including Chenopodium quinoa, Nicotiana tabacum cv. Xanthi, and N. benthamiana. All extracts induced necrotic local lesions in C. quinoa plants at 8 days post inoculation (dpi), and chlorotic local lesions in N. benthamiana plants at 10 dpi. N. tabacum cv. Xanthi plants showed local chlorotic lesions at 10 dpi which in most cases progressed to white etched rings. The symptomatology of the original Hippeastrum and the indicator plants was indicative of infection caused by Hippeastrum mosaic virus (HiMV, genus Potyvirus) (Alexandre et al. 2011; Raj et al. 2009). Thus, primers specific to HiMV coat protein (CP) gene were designed after aligning all relevant virus sequences retrieved from GenBank. The resulting primers were HiMVCPFW (5′-GCCACGATATGCAATTCAGAG-3′) and HiMVCPREV (5′-CCGAGCATCGAGTGCATGTT-3′). Reverse transcription (RT)-PCR performed on the total RNA extracted from two original symptomatic plants using TRI reagent (Ambion) produced the expected 246-bp fragment of HiMV CP gene. Direct sequencing from both ends of the obtained PCR products showed (GenBank Accession No. KT597689) 95% nucleotide sequence identity for both of them to the corresponding region of HiMV isolate Euch-B from Brazil (JF690747) and 94% sequence identity to isolates TW from Taiwan (AY590143), Alaska from the United States (GQ857550), and Rilona from the Netherlands (EF203685). The newly developed RT-PCR confirmed the HiMV presence in the inoculated but not in apical leaves of N. tabacum and N. benthamiana plants used in the biological indexing. In addition, ELISA performed on the original Hippeastrum plants showing mosaic symptoms, using antibodies against Cucumber mosaic virus (genus Cucumovirus) (produced in house), Tomato ringspot virus (genus Nepovirus) (Agdia, Inc.), Tomato spotted wilt virus, and Groundnut ringspot virus (genus Tospovirus) (Loewe Biochemica GmbH), was negative for all viruses. Subsequently, pathogenicity tests were conducted using leaf disc grafting on leaves of bulb-derived Hippeastrum plants 20 days after leaf emergence. First, prior to grafting, graft recipient plants were tested negative for virus infection by biological indexing, ELISA, and RT-PCR. Two weeks after grafting, mosaic symptoms appeared onto the grafted leaves and expanded to the new leaves 1 week later. RT-PCR with the above primer pair confirmed the presence of HiMV in grafted plants. At least seven viruses have been confirmed to infect Hippeastrum sp. (Dong et al. 2013) with HiMV being one of the most important among them substantially reducing the market value of infected plants. To our knowledge, this is the first report of HiMV in Hippeastrum sp. in Greece.References:Alexandre, M. A. V., et al. 2011. J. Plant Pathol. 93:643. ISI, Google ScholarDong, J. H., et al. 2013. Virus Genes 46:567. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11262-012-0873-z Crossref, ISI, Google ScholarRaj, S. K., et al. 2009. Australas. Plant Dis. Notes 4:50. Google ScholarDetailsFiguresLiterature CitedRelated Vol. 100, No. 4 April 2016SubscribeISSN:0191-2917e-ISSN:1943-7692 Metrics Article History Issue Date: 23 Mar 2016Published: 29 Feb 2016First Look: 27 Oct 2015Accepted: 19 Oct 2015 Page: 869 Information© 2016 The American Phytopathological SocietyCited byPotyvirus Infecting Ornamental Plants Grown in the Neotropical Region14 November 2021Hippeastrum spp. (Amaryllis)6 June 2020Characterization of a New Tomato Spotted Wilt Virus Isolates Found in Hippeastrum hybridum (Hort.) Plants in Poland27 July 2016 | Journal of Horticultural Research, Vol. 24, No. 1