Detection of sour and sweet cherry viruses in Ukraine

Received: October 14th, 2020 ; Accepted: November 20th, 2020 ; Published: December 10th, 2020 ; Correspondence: [email protected] of the main obstacles on the way to successful cultivation of orchards and planting material of sour and sweet cherry is infection with viral pathogens. They can adversely affect yields, reduce plant resistance to abiotic factors and cause losses in the nursery. Therefore, it is important to determine the spread of viruses in plantations and the selection of virus-free plants for the establishment of nuclear stock collections. In order to study phytovirological state of the orchards, tests for the presence of five viral pathogens were performed: Tomato black ring nepovirus (TBRV), Cherry leaf roll nepovirus (CLRV), Apple chlorotic leaf spot virus (ACLSV), Petunia asteroid mosaic tombusvirus (PеAMV), Plum pox virus (PPV). The level of infection with these pathogens reaches 19.2% for sour cherry, 5.8% - for sweet cherry, and 7.4% - for rootstocks. PPV prevailed in sour cherry material - 7%, in sweet cherry material - ACLSV (3.6%), while the rootstock samples were most infected by PeAMV - 5.6%. Until now, this virus has not been reported in Ukraine. TBRV and ACLSV viruses have been known in other crops so far, while not yet been detected in sour and sweet cherry. It was determined that PPV isolates (Mahaleb 1, Mahaleb 2) which were detected in sour cherry, belong to strain D