Update on Distribution and Genetic Variability of Plum pox virus Strains in Bulgaria

Field surveys for Plum pox virus (PPV) infection were conducted in stone fruit orchards all over Bulgaria. In total, 1168 out of 3020 leaf samples from cultivated Prunus spp. and wildly growing P. cerasifera trees reacted positive for PPV in DASI-ELISA with the universal monoclonal antibody (MAb) 5B. Further ELISA analyses showed that 987 and 127 isolates belonged to PPV-M and PPV-D serotypes, respectively. The plum and P. cerasifera showed 82.0% and 50.5% levels of infection, respectively followed by the peach (40.0%) and the apricot (32.0%). Five hundred fifty one PPV isolates were further typed by IC-RT-PCR with PPV-Rec, -M and -D-specific primers, targeting (Cter)NIb-(Nter) CP genome region, as 125 isolates were sequenced. The results revealed the presence of PPV-Rec, PPV-M and PPV-D and mixed infections of these strains. PPV-Rec was the most prevalent strain (49.0%), followed by PPV-M (40.1%), while PPV-D was the less spread strain (8.2%). PPV-Rec was the most common strain in plums, including the eight “old-aged” trees from the region of the first Sharka discovery. PPV-M was the most prevalent strain in peach and apricot. Phylogenetic analyses on (Cter)NIb-(Nter)CP of the isolates were performed. PPV-Rec isolates formed a homogeneous group, while PPV-M isolates split into PPV-Ma and PPV-Mb subgroups. Five separated clades were formed by the analyzed PPV-D isolates. Nucleotide sequences of the partial CP coding region of the analyzed isolates revealed a slightly higher intra-strain genetic variability in PPV-Rec and PPV-M isolates, while that of PPV-D strain isolates was higher from the reported for these strains.