Review of Citrus phantom diseases
Aknadibossian et al. (2023) reviewed Citrus ‘phantom disorders’ of presumed virus and virus-like origin. They provide a list of 55 citrus phantom disorders that should be disregarded and not used in the scientific literature as they cannot be considered as being associated with a pathogenic aetiology or should have their names updated to reflect today’s knowledge and their association with currently known pathogens or abiotic factors.
In the EPPO Global Database (GD), when a disease agent has been identified this has gradually been reflected in the database (i.e. diseases have been assigned to their causal agents). However, when analyzing the list provided by Aknadibossian et al. (2023), the EPPO Secretariat noted that the following citrus diseases still had an entry in GD. As a consequence, these diseases will be either removed from GD (e.g. Citrus gum pocket agent), or reassigned to their associated pathogens (e.g. Citrus zonate chlorosis agent will be assigned to Higrevirus waimanalo). All obsolete EPPO Codes will be deactivated.
Name | Preferred name in EPPO GD | EPPO Code | Comment |
Gum pocket/ gummy pitting/ wood pitting | Citrus gum pocket agent | CSGP00 | Disorders possibly of physiological or stress origin that could be enhanced by viroid infection |
Algerian navel orange virus (ANOV) | Algerian navel orange virus | ANOV00 | Apart from the original report, there is no other mention of ANOV, and no type isolate is available today |
Citrus yellow mottle | Citrus yellow mottle virus | CIYMV0 | Only observed in 3 trees in Japan in 1984. Initial isolates were lost and the disease has not reappeared. Should not be confused with citrus yellow mottle-associated virus recently reported from Pakistan |
Bahia bark scaling (BBS) | Citrus Bahia psorosis agent | CSBP00 | Recently showed to be caused by a fungus, Lasiodiplodia iraniensis |
Zonate chlorosis | Citrus zonate chlorosis agent | CSZC00 | Recently, hibiscus green spot virus 2 (Higrevirus waimanalo, HGSV2) was shown to be the causal agent of this disorder |
Leathery leaf | Citrus leathery leaf agent | CSLL00 | Apart from the original report, there is no other mention of this disease, and no type isolate is available today |
Sources
Aknadibossian V, Freitas-Astúa J, Vidalakis G, Folimonova SY (2023) Citrus phantom disorders of presumed virus and virus-like origin: what have we learned in the past twenty years? Journal of Citrus Pathology 10(1). http://dx.doi.org/10.5070/C410161176