Identification of Plum pox virus Determinants Implicated in Specific Interactions with Different Prunus spp.

ABSTRACT The characterization of pathogenic properties of two infectious clones of Plum pox virus (PPV) isolates, pGPPV (D group) and pGPPVPS (M group), was investigated in their woody hosts (seedlings of Prunus spp.). The two clones differed in their ability to infect plum and peach cultivars, from no infection to local and systemic infection. The phenotype determinants were located with a set of chimeric viruses from the two clones. In plum, determinants of systemic infection were located in a genomic fragment encoding the P3 and 6K1 proteins, which might influence genome amplification or virus movement. The capacity of pGPPVPS to induce stable local and systemic infections in peach was not located accurately and might be influenced by multiple determinants carried by different regions of the genome, excluding those encoding the protein 1, the majority of helper component, nuclear inclusions a and b, and coat protein. We conclude that PPV infections of plum and peach are governed by different determinants.