New Record of Passionfruit Woodiness Virus in Japan

Abstract

A potyvirus isolated from passionfruit hybrid cultivar Ohdama (Passiflora edulis×P. edulis f. flavicarpa) showing systemic mosaic symptoms on the leaves and producing severely malformed and woody fruits, collected in the Amami main island of Kagoshima Prefecture, was identified as passionfruit woodiness virus (PWV). The isolate, designated as PWV-AO, was transmitted by aphids, Myzus persicae, in a non-persistent manner and induced local infection in Chenopodium amaranticolor, C. quinoa, Solanum melongena and Phaseolus vulgaris and systemic infection in Passiflora caerulea, P. foetida and Sesamum indicum by sap inoculation. P. edulis, P. edulis f. flavicarpa and Ohdama could be infected with the virus only by aphid and graft inoculations. Sap from diseased Ohdama was infective to P. vulgaris cv. Sujinashi Edogawa after dilution to 10^-4 but not 10^-5, after heating for 10min at 55°C but not at 60°C, and after 2 days at 25°C but not 3 days. The virus particles were filamentous, 787nm long. In ultrathin sections, pinwheel and scroll inclusions were observed in the cytoplasm of infected Ohdama leaf cells. The virus particles contained a single protein species of MW 35, 000. PWV-AO reacted strongly with an antiserum to a PWV-Brazilian isolate (PWV-B) and weakly with antisera to soybean mosaic virus (SbMV) and watermelon mosaic virus-2 (WMV-2), suggesting that PWV-AO was serologically similar to PWV-B and have a distant serological relationship to SbMV and WMV-2.