SEROLOGICAL IDENTIFICATION OF SOME IMPORTANT VIRUSES ON FRUIT TREES AND BUSHES IN TEKIRDAĞ PROVINCE OF TURKEY

Fruit trees of small-fruited apple, Malus pumila Mill.; plum, Prunus domestica L.; apricot, Prunus armenica L.; medlar, Mespilus germanica L.; blackberry, Rubus fruticosus L.; hawthorn, Crataegus sp.; and wild rose, Rosa canina L. were investigated for the presence of viruses: Plum pox virus (PPV), Apple chlorotic leaf spot virus (ACLSV) and Apple mosaic virus (ApMV) in the Tekirdağ Province in Turkey. Double antibody sandwich enzyme linked immunosorbent assay (DAS-ELISA) tests were applied on leaf samples collected from symptom expressing trees and bushes. DAS-ELISA test results revealed that out of the 10 apricot trees 4 were infected with PPV, 4 with ACLSV, another one with both ApMV and ACLSV, and the last one had mixed infection of three viruses. Two out of 12 plum trees were infected with PPV, and another two had ACLSV. One out of 4 M. pumila trees was infected with ApMV and the other one had ApMV and ACLSV together. One symptom expressing medlar tree, however, was infected with ApMV in the Tekirdağ province. Six out of 17 symptom expressing hawthorn bushes were found infected with only ApMV. One blackberry bush and one wild rose bush contained ApMV too. All of these results imply that PPV, ACLSV and ApMV viruses have considerable amount of sources of inoculum in the Tekirdağ province where establishment of many fruit orchards were initiated and supported by the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs in every proper location. By evaluating serological test results, this is the first report of the detection of ApMV on medlar tree (M. germanica), blackberry (R. fruticosus) and hawthorn bushes (Crataegus sp.) in Turkey.