Disease Note

Occurrence of Plum Pox Virus in Spain in Japanese Plum, a New Natural Host. G. Llácer, Departamento de Protección Vegetal, Instituto Valenciano de Investigaciones Agrarias (IVIA), Moncada (Valencia), Spain. M. Cambra, Departamento de Protección Vegetal, Instituto Valenciano de Investigaciones Agrarias (IVIA), Moncada (Valencia), Spain. Plant Dis. 70:173. Accepted for publication 15 October 1985. Copyright 1986 The American Phytopathological Society. DOI: 10.1094/PD-70-173c.

Plum pox virus (PPV) was detected for the first time in Spain in naturally infected Japanese plum trees (Prunus salicina Lindl. ‘Red Beaut’) showing rings, flecks, and depressed brownish areas on fruit and chlorotic rings, bands, and mottling on leaves. Japanese plum had been considered only an experimental host. PPV was detected by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay and confirmed with graft transmission on GF-305 peach seedlings and immunoelectron microscopy. The symptoms have been reproduced on experimentally infected Red Beaut trees. Over the past 10 yr, this cultivar from California has become widely grown in Spain. PPV was probably introduced through other stone fruit cultivars, symptomless carriers, or plum rootstocks from other countries in Europe, and Red Beaut behaved as a field indicator of the virus to reveal the disease in Spain. The high sensitivity of Red Beaut to PPV suggests that other plum, peach, and apricot cultivars grown in countries free from PPV also could be sensitive to plum pox, a possibility that should be considered by European countries wanting to import new varieties.