Grapevine Viruses in the Atacama Region of Chile

Abstract

AbstractVineyards in the Atacama region in Chile were surveyed from 2007 to 2009 for the presence of viruses. This region is an important area of table grape production, supplying international markets with its fruits in the off season of the Northern Hemisphere. Reverse transcription‐polymerase chain reaction (RT‐PCR) assay was used to detect the most economically important grapevine viruses in 1000 samples, including symptomatic and asymptomatic plants. The rate of positive samples was 8.8% for Grapevine leafroll‐associated virus 1 (GLRaV‐1), 46.8% for Grapevine leafroll‐associated virus 2 (GLRaV‐2), 9.1% for Grapevine leafroll‐associated virus 3 (GLRaV‐3), 12.3% for Grapevine virus A (GVA), 30.7% for Grapevine fleck virus (GFkV) and 9.6% for Grapevine fanleaf virus (GFLV). Overall virus infection was 68.7%. DNA sequencing confirmed the identification of viruses in selected samples, and comparative analysis indicated that Chilean isolates have moderate‐to‐high molecular identities with corresponding virus reference strains selected from GenBank. The high level of viral infection observed indicates that viruses are involved in decreasing table grape production in the region. This is the first extensive virus survey performed in the Atacama region, is also the first study of genetic comparison of grapevine viruses developed in South America with a wide spectrum of viruses and isolates and provides an assessment of grapevine viruses on table grape.