Studies on Potato spindle tuber viroid in Russia
According to Owens et al. (2009), Potato spindle tuber viroid (Pospiviroid, PSTVd – EPPO A2 List) is widespread in Russia and still poses problems for seed potato production. Symptoms resembling those of PSTVd were first reported in European Russia in the early 1930s, but at that time with a limited distribution and low economic importance. In the 1980s and 1990s, a reduction of yield and quality of seed potatoes started to be observed. The initial suspicions that seed potatoes and in vitro plants could be infected by PSTVd were confirmed by studies carried out in the 1990s. During these studies, the viroid was detected in 50 to 70% of in vitro plants and tuber samples collected from different regions of Russia. A research project on the diversity of PSTVd isolates in Russia was initiated in 2006. Thirty-nine PSTVd isolates were collected over a 15-year period from distant areas of Russia (Central Russia, Southern Russia, Far East) and were characterized. Sequence analysis revealed a rather low sequence diversity, although 16 new PSTVd sequence variants were recovered from Russian seed potatoes.
Sources
Owens RA, Girsova NV, Kromina KA, Lee IM, Mozhaeva KA, Kastalyeva T (2009) Russian isolates of Potato spindle tuber viroid exhibit low sequence diversity. Plant Disease 93(7), 752-759.