THE OCCURRENCE AND MOLECULAR CHARACTERISATION OF PNRSV ISOLATES IN TURKEY

Totally 486 plant materials of sour cherry, sweet cherry, peach, nectarine, apricot and plum trees originating from different stone fruit growing regions of Turkey was investigated for the occurrence of PNRSV in fruit orchards and nurseries. DAS-ELISA and RT-PCR procedures were applied to all samples in order to determine the present viruses. 51 samples were estimated as infected by PNRSV testing by RT-PCR, while DAS-ELISA detected the virus only in 31 samples. PCR-RFLP analyses were performed by restriction endonucleases and created a phylogenetic tree. 20 Turkish isolates had no identical pattern with PE-5 group of PNRSV isolates. Only Bursa21 isolate was determined as a member of PV-32 group. Our PNRSV isolates obtained from different geographic locations did not reveal any association on grouping based on the results of PCR-RFLP.