Fig Viruses in Mainland Spain

Abstract

A survey of fig viruses was conducted from 2010 to 2012 on individual fig trees from outdoor gardens showing different symptoms associated with fig mosaic disease. A total of 30 fig leaf samples were collected from eight different provinces of mainland Spain and tested by reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) to assess the presence of fig mosaic virus (FMV), fig leaf mottle-associated virus 1 (FLMaV-1), fig leaf mottle-associated virus 2 (FLMaV-2), fig mild mottle-associated virus (FMMaV), fig latent virus 1 (FLV-1) and Fig fleck-associated virus (FFkaV). The 96.7% (29 samples of 30) of the analysed samples were infected with FMV, 16.7% (5 of 30) with FLMaV-1 and 26.7% (8 of 30) with FMMaV, whereas all samples were negative for FLMaV-2, FLV-1 and FFkaV. Mixed infection was observed in 13 samples. Sequencing analyses results showed that FMV, FMMaV and FLMaV-1 Spanish isolates shared 89–93% nt identity with other Mediterranean isolates of the same viruses. Phylogenetic analyses of the amplified RdRp fragment from the FMV grouped the Spanish isolates into a subgroup together with Japanese, Canadian and some Serbian and Turkish isolates. To our knowledge, this is the first report of FMV, FMMaV and FLMaV-1 occurring in mainland Spain.