Arabis mosaic virus in Grapevines in New York State.

In a limited survey of commercial vineyards and a germplasm repository in Ontario County, NY, 20 vines of Vitis sp. were tested in fall and spring 2010 to 2012 for viruses using a double-antibody sandwich (DAS)-ELISA and macroarray with oligonucleotide probes for grapevine viruses ((3) and unpublished). The plants selected for analysis included those showing atypical growth including leaf deformation, yellowing, cupping or spotting, vein clearing, shortening of internodes, and reduced vigor. Arabis mosaic virus (ArMV; genus Nepovirus, family Secoviridae) was detected in leaf tissue and wood scrapings in two vines using the DAS-ELISA with antibodies from Bioreba (Reinach, Switzerland). The ArMV positive vines were from Vitis hybrid cultivars Noah and Geisenheim 26. ArMV was also detected in these two vines using the macroarray, with hybridization observed to 24 of 32 oligonucleotide probes specific to this virus. To confirm the identification of the virus, total RNAs were extracted from leaf tissues, hybridized with random hexamers, and reverse-transcribed using MMLV reverse transcriptase (Life Technologies, Grand Island, NY). Complementary DNAs were amplified by PCR using an IQ supermix (BioRad, Hercules, CA), and two sets of generic primers for nepoviruses (1,4). Thermocycler conditions were 94°C 5 min (1×); 94°C 30 s, 50°C 30 s, and 69°C 2 min (35×), and 72°C for 5 min. The PCR products were sequenced directly. Sequences from the 340-bp products obtained from cultivars Geisenheim 26 (GenBank Accession No. HE984333) and Noah (HE984334) using the Wei et al. primers (4) had 76 to 84% sequence identity to ArMV RNA1 GenBank accessions GQ369528 and AY303786. Sequences from the 301-bp products obtained from cultivars Geisenheim 26 (HE984335) and Noah (HE984336) using the Digiaro et al. primers (1) had 87 to 91% sequence identity to ArMV RNA2 GenBank accessions AY017339 and X81814. ArMV was mechanically transmitted from Geisenheim 26 to Nicotiana tabacum cultivar Xanthi NN. Inoculation gave rise to necrotic local lesions on the inoculated leaves of five plants in each of two experiments (10 of 10 plants total). The presence of ArMV in tobacco was confirmed by DAS-ELISA. Thus, the presence of ArMV in New York grapevines has been confirmed by the detection of the coat protein antigen, virus specific oligonucleotide probes, and the sequencing of portions of both genomic RNAs. There are limited reports of ArMV in North America and in grapevine in particular (2), but with a wide host range and seed and nematode transmissibility, ArMV has the ability to become more widespread among grapevine and other crops. References: (1) M. Digiaro, et al. J. Virol. Methods 141:34, 2007. (2) B. N. Milkus et al. Am. J. Enol. Vitic. 50:56, 1999. (3) J. Thompson et al. J. Virol. Methods 183:161, 2012. (4) T. Wei et al. J. Virol. Methods 153:16, 2008.