Bulletin of Insectology (2007) 60, 309-310

Ç. Ulubas Serçe, M. Gazel, S. Yalçin and K. Çaglayan (2007)
Responses of six Turkish apricot cultivars to `Candidatus Phytoplasma prunorum' under greenhouse conditions
Bulletin of Insectology 60 (2), 309-310
First International Phytoplasmologist Working Group Meeting (IPWG), Bologna (Italy) November 12-15, 2007
Abstract: Turkey leads in apricot, Prunus armeniaca L., production in the world. In Turkey, apricot is mainly produced for table and dry consumption. Both local and foreign cultivars are grown for table production while local cultivars dominate drying. Although there are several reports for `Candidatus Phytoplasma prunorum' infections focusing on coastal regions, there are no reports, to our knowledge, indicating the response of Turkish cultivars to this pathogen. In this study, we observed the responses of six Turkish cultivars (Hacihaliloglu, Kabaasi, Tokaloglu, Sekerpare, Alkayisi and Karacabey) to `Ca. P. prunorum' under greenhouse conditions. For each cultivar, 11 one-year-old trees were potted in 15 lt containers; eight of these trees were inoculated by three chip-buddings for each tree in spring of 2005 and three trees were used as control. Next spring, the presence of `Ca. P. prunorum' was tested by PCR using phytoplasma specific universal primers P1/P7 and R16F2n/R2, and the plants were monitored for symptom development. The `Ca. P. prunorum' infections were detected in one to four trees of each cultivar. The infected trees exhibited visual symptoms in early summer of 2006 and 2007. The first year's symptoms include longitudinally upward rolling of the leaves along the mid-vein. In the second year, some of the infected trees sprouted and flowered earlier when compared to the controls. Most of the infected trees died at the end of the second summer. These preliminary results demonstrate that although there are some differences among the cultivars for visual symptoms caused by `Ca. P. prunorum' inoculation and PCR testing, all of the cultivars tested appear to be susceptible to `Ca. P. prunorum'.
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Full text of article
Database assignments for author(s): Çigdem Ulubas Serçe, Mona Gazel, Kadriye Caglayan

Research topic(s) for pests/diseases/weeds:
resistance/tolerance/defence of host

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Pest and/or beneficial records:

Beneficial	Pest/Disease/Weed	Crop/Product	Country	Quarant.
	Phytoplasma prunorum	Apricot (Prunus armeniaca)	Turkey