COMPARISON OF 3 METHODS FOR ASSESSING PLUM POX VIRUS VARIABILITY - FURTHER EVIDENCE FOR THE EXISTENCE OF 2 MAJOR GROUPS OF ISOLATES

Twenty-eight plum pox virus isolates from several European and Mediterranean countries were compared by electrophoretic mobility of their coat protein subunit measured by Electroblot Immuno-Assay (EBIA), antigenic properties of the N- and C-terminal parts of the coat protein and restriction fragment length polymorphism (RFLP) and analysis of polymerase chain reaction (PCR) amplification of the C-terminal part of the coat protein gene. Similar results were obtained by each of the three methods. These confirm the existence of the two major subgroups of PPV, and which we now propose to designate PPV-D and PPV-M, respectively.