JOURNAL OF CULTURE COLLECTIONS

Volume 5, 2006-2007, pp. 94-101

NEW CUCUMOVIRUS ON BEANS IN BULGARIA –

AN ATTEMPT FOR CHARACTERIZATION

Dimitrina Kostova^1*, Stefanos Tsorlianis², Angela Yordanova³,

Vittoria Lisa⁴ and Anna-Maria Vaira⁴

¹Maritsa Vegetable Crops Research Institute, 32 Brezovslo shose str., 4003 Plovdiv, Bulgaria;

²Agrarian University, 12 Mendeleev blvd., 4000 Plovdiv, Bulgaria,
³National Bank for Industrial Microorganisms and Cell Cultures, 1113 Sofia, P.O.Box 239, Bulgaria;
⁴Istituto di Virologia Vegetale del CNR (IVV), Strada delle Cacce 73, I-10135 Torino, Italy

*Corresponding author, e-mail: dkostova2000@yahoo.com

Summary

A virus was isolated from naturally infected bean plants, grown in different areas in Bulgaria. The investigated isolates were characterized using electron microscopy, serology, biological tests, electrophoretic analysis and reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR). Isometric particles about 30 nm in diameter were observed in crude sap preparations. The tested isolates were serologically distantly related to cucumber mosaic virus (CMV) but in ELISA experiments and immuno-electrophoresis they demonstrated a close serological relationship with a cucumovirus from China named Ch 39. The Bulgarian isolates were identified as a cucumovirus Ch 39-BG. The electrophoretic analysis of this virus showed the presence of two protein bands. CMV primers amplified an unspecific DNA fragment of 500 bp. All the performed investigations suggested the presence of a cucumovirus closer to CMV though different from the known CMV strains.

Key words: cucumovirus, bean, electron microscopy, ELISA, immunoelectrophoresis, SDS-PAGE, RT-PCR.

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