FIRST REPORT OF FIG MOSAIC VIRUS AND FIG BADNAVIRUS 1 ON COMMON FIG TREES IN CROATIA

Abstract

Common fig (Ficus carica L.) is one of the most common fruit trees in the Croatian coastal region. Fig mosaic symp- toms, first reported more than a half century ago (Perisic , 1952) are found on most cultivars. In 2014, leaf samples were taken from 30 autochthonous fig trees from two locations of the Istrian peninsula for laboratory analyses. Twenty six trees exhibited typical symptoms of foliar mosaic, one tree exhibited also fasciations, while the remaining four trees were asymptomatic. Extraction of total RNA was done us- ing an RNeasy plant mini kit (Qiagen, Germany) and ex- traction of DNA using a GenElute Plant Genomic DNA Miniprep Kit (Sigma-Aldrich, USA). Plants were tested by PCR for the presence of Fig mosaic virus (FMV) and Fig badnavirus 1 (FBV-1), applying previously described condi- tions and diagnostic primers (Elbeaino et al., 2009; Laney et al., 2012). A symptomless fig tree was used as negative control. The infection with FMV was confirmed in 26 symp- tomatic out of 30 sampled trees (87%), while all 30 plants were positive for FBV-1. One amplicon each of FMV and FBV-1 (isolates FMV-Cro-19S and FBV-1-Cro-17S, respec- tively), were sequenced in both directions (GenBank acces- sion Nos KT312843 and KT312844). A BLASTN program search showed 97% identity at the nucleotide level of the FMV-Cro-19S RdRp gene with the comparable sequence of FMV SB2-2 isolate from Serbia (AB697838), while the poly- protein gene from FBV-1-Cro-17S had a sequence identical to that of several FBV-1 isolates from the USA (JN050864, JN050875, JN112365). To the best of our knowledge, this is the first report of FMV and FBV-1 in Croatia.