ISHS Acta Horticulturae 781: XX International Symposium on Virus and Virus-Like Diseases of Temperate Fruit Crops - Fruit Tree Diseases
EPIDEMIOLOGY OF EUROPEAN STONE FRUIT YELLOWS IN GERMANY |
| Authors: | B. Jarausch, I. Mühlenz, A. Beck, I. Lampe, U. Harzer, W. Jarausch |
| Keywords: | Candidatus Phytoplasma prunorum, apricot, Prunus species, symptom specificity, Cacopsylla pruni, transmission trials |
| Abstract:
Since 2000, surveys have been conducted in different stone fruit growing regions in South-western Germany to detect European stone fruit yellows (ESFY) disease in Germany. Each year visual inspections for typical symptoms of ESFY such as early budbreak in late winter and chlorotic leafroll in summer have been done on different Prunus species. Branch samples of all trees with typical symptoms as well as randomized samples from trees with doubtful symptoms have been taken in summer and analysed for infection with Candidatus Phytoplasma prunorum via PCR using specific primers ECA1/ECA2. The pathogen could be detected in the regions Rheinland, Rheinhessen, Vorder- and Südpfalz and Baden and was present in all cultivated Prunus species: P. armeniaca, P. persica, P. domestica and P. amygdalus. For apricots, more than 80% of the samples were infected while peach and European plum were less affected. Trees of P. armeniaca with typical symptoms showed up to 90% correlation with the presence of the phytoplasma but also a high percentage of trees with doubtful symptoms were highly infected. For P. persica, symptom specification was less pronounced. Almost no infection was found in the wild Prunus species P. spinosa and P. cerasifera. In contrast, regular psyllid captures on all different Prunus species gave high populations of Cacopsylla pruni on P. spinosa and P. cerasifera while only few individuals were collected from cultivated orchards. The natural infection rate of field collected C. pruni was between 2 and 3%. Transmission trials under controlled conditions showed the capability of C. pruni to transmit the phytoplasma to healthy test plants and proved that C. pruni is also a vector of Candidatus Phytoplasma prunorum in Germany. | |
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