The ability of 32P-labeled transcribed cRNA probes to detect tomato ringspot virus (TmRSV) RNA in nucleic acid extracts from roots, bark, and leaves of nectarine (Prunus persica [L.] Batsch) trees with the Prunus stem-pitting disease was assessed and compared with detection of TmRSV antigen by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) in the same tissues. Neither TmRSV-specific nucleic acid nor antigen was detected in nectarine leaf tissue. ELISA detected TmRSV antigen in root extracts from 71% of the diseased trees, while dot hybridization detected virus-specific nucleic acid in 18% of the same samples. However, ELISA detected TmRSV antigen in only 47% of bark extracts; whereas TmRSV-specific nucleic acid was detected in 100% of the bark extracts from samples collected at or near the soil line. When nucleic acid extracts from bark were prepared from various locations on diseased trees and tested for TmRSV-specific nucleic acid by dot hybridization, there was an almost perfect correlation between the presence of stem-pitting symptoms and the detection of TmRSV nucleic acid. Detection of TmRSV RNA from the bark tissue of rootstock suckers from TmRSV-infected `Delicious'/MM.lO6 apple (Malus × domestica Borkh.) trees was unsuccessful using dot hybridization. The viral RNA, however, was usually detected in either leaf or root tissue of these same trees.
Molecular characterization of Prunus necrotic ringspot virus isolated from rose in Brazil
