Detection and Molecular Characterization of Pepper Mild Mottle Virus from Turkey

Using double‐antibody sandwich–enzyme‐linked immunosorbent assay ( DAS ‐ ELISA ), pepper mild mottle virus ( PMM oV) was detected in 27 pepper ( C apsicum spp.) plants of 3000 tested and found to be present in A dana, A ntalya, K ahramanmaraş, M ersin and Ş anlıurfa, all provinces devoted to pepper production in southern T urkey. Results of reverse transcription‐polymerase chain reaction ( RT ‐ PCR ) using primers specific to RNA ‐dependent RNA polymerase ( R dRp) and capsid protein ( CP ) genes confirmed those of ELISA by amplifying all PMM o V ‐infected plants. Restriction fragment length polymorphism ( RFLP ) and PCR assays using sequence characterized amplified region ( SCAR ) marker primers showed that PMM oV from Turkey overcomes L 3 ‐ gene‐mediated resistance, so pepper plantations are susceptible to PMM o V infection. Sequences of CP s showed high amino acid identities (92–99%) with their homologues in the database and, furthermore, to share a distinguished molecular print found common uniquely in pathotypes P 1,2,3 . The phylogenetic tree allocated the Turkish isolates in one cluster together with PMM oV pathotypes P 1,2,3 of the Italian, Spanish and Israeli isolates, all reported to overcome the L 3 ‐resistance‐breaking gene in pepper. This is the first molecular information on PMM oV isolates present in T urkey, for which this information could have guiding significance in future pepper resistance breeding in the country.