July 6, 2003
Source: American Phytopathological Society, DISEASE NOTES [edited]

First Report of Potato mop-top virus on Potato from the United States

D. H. Lambert, Department of Plant, Soil and Environmental Sciences, University of Maine, Orono 04469; L. Levy and V. A. Mavrodieva, APHIS-PPQ-CPHST, National Plant Germplasm and Biotechnology Laboratory, Beltsville, MD 20705; S. B. Johnson, University of Maine Cooperative Extension, Presque Isle 04769; and M. J. Babcock and M. E. Vayda, Department of Biochemistry, Microbiology and Molecular Biology, University of Maine, Orono 04469. Plant Dis. 87:872, 2003; published on-line as D-2003-0430-02N, 2003. Accepted for publication 15 Apr 2003.

Potato mop-top virus (PMTV) is a tripartite pomovirus vectored by the powdery scab plasmodiophoromycete _Spongospora subterranea_ pv. _subterranea_ (1). PMTV occurs on potato (_Solanum tuberosum_) in Europe, the Andes, Asia, and Canada. Internal necrotic arc and fleck tuber symptoms ("spraing") may reduce commercial acceptance of some cultivars (3).

PMTV symptoms were discovered in 'Shepody' tubers at the Aroostook Research Farm, Presque Isle, ME in May 2002 and subsequently in 'Russet Burbank' tubers in commercial storage from the 2001 Maine crop. Symptomatic tubers exhibited single or multiple concentric necrotic arcs that were partial or complete, but exhibited no distinct external symptoms. The presence of PMTV in eight 'Shepody' tubers was indicated by positive enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA; Adgen, Ltd., Auchincruive, Ayr, Scotland) and confirmed by reverse-transcription polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR).

'Russet Burbank' potatoes were visually diagnosed, and the corresponding halves of 128 symptomatic tubers were forwarded to the University of Maine and APHIS (Beltsville, MD). Of these, ELISA readings in Maine were strongly positive (>3 x background) for 88, ambiguous (1.5-3 x back-ground) for 13, and negative for 27. Subsamples from these three categories were positive by PCR in 17 of 17, 9 of 9, and 12 of 14 cases, respectively. A similar rating, positive or ambiguous, in ELISA testing was identical for all but one case at Beltsville.

Confirmation of PMTV required PCR testing, resulting in a characteristic PCR product of 401 bp that was generated from the coat protein coding region on RNA 2 (2) using the primer pair PMTV 1 5'-GCAGCCGTCGAGAATAGATA-3' (RNA nucleotides 316-335) and PMTV 4 5'-GCGAGTTGATGTGCCACATT-3'
(complementary to RNA 2 nucleotides 716-697). An immunocapture RT-PCR using this primer set and the coating antibody from the Adgen ELISA kit was also successful in detecting PMTV.

In separate reactions, a second product of 646 bp was generated from the triple gene block on RNA 3 (4) using the primer pair PMTV 5 5'-GGTGAAGAGGACAAGGT-3' (RNA molecules 1417-1436) and PMTV 7
5'-AACAGTCCGGTCTTGTGAAC-3' (complementary to RNA 3 nucleotides 2063-2044).

The sequence of these products was 98 to 100% identical to PMTV published sequences.

The discovery of this virus will result in adjustments to U.S. and Canadian seed potato certification standards and symptom characterization for common North American cultivars.

References:
(1) R. A. C. Jones and B. D. Harrison. Ann. Appl. Biol 63:1, 1969.
(2) S. Kashiwazak et al. Virology 206:701, 1995.
(3) M. Sandgren et al. Am. J. Potato Res. 79:205, 2002.
(4) K. P. Scott et al. J. Gen. Virol.75:3561, 1994.

[This is the first report of PMTV in Plant Disease, but it is not the first report of the disease in the USA. The first report was on 8 Aug 2002 followed by several others in the same year. PMTV was found earlier in 2003 in Nova Scotia. - Mod.DH]