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Occurrence of Hop Stunt Viroid in Mulberry ( Morus alba ) in Lebanon and Italy
Author(s) -
Elbeaino Toufic,
Kubaa Raied Abou,
Choueiri Elia,
Digiaro Michele,
Navarro Beatriz
Publication year - 2012
Publication title -
journal of phytopathology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.53
H-Index - 60
eISSN - 1439-0434
pISSN - 0931-1785
DOI - 10.1111/j.1439-0434.2011.01855.x
Subject(s) - biology , phylogenetic tree , viroid , horticulture , botany , virology , plant virus , veterinary medicine , gene , genetics , virus , medicine
The presence of Hop stunt viroid (HSVd) was detected using RT‐PCR and Northern blot hybridization in five of 60 samples from symptomless mulberry trees ( Morus alba ) collected in Italian and Lebanese orchards in July 2010. Infection levels were c. 10% in Lebanese and 8% in Italian samples. Nucleotide alignments showed that sequences of the mulberry HSVd isolates shared 95–96% identity with those of the same viroid occurring elsewhere. In a phylogenetic tree, mulberry HSVd isolates clustered together with those of HSVd‐citrus, regardless of their geographical origin. This is the first report of infection in mulberry trees by HSVd.