Project title
Molecular and biological characterisation of two divergent molecular variants of GLRaV-3
Project leader
Jooste, A E C
Institution
ARC Plant Protection Research Institute
Project description
GLRaV-3 (Ampelovirus) is known to be closely associated with grapevine leafroll disease and occurs commonly in South African vineyards. This suggests that the virus is related to the problem of leafroll disease in South Africa. Results from the past two years study in our laboratory revealed two definitive molecular variants of GLRav-3 between South African as well as overseas isolates of the virus. These findings are based on SSCP - and sequence analysis of various genomic regions. This showed that although some fragments are rather conserved with more than 90% nt identity among isolates, other regions, especially the 5-UTR, are clearly divergent, sharing only 85% nt similarity. These molecular differences between GLRaV-3 isolates suggest that the biological properties between variants can differ. The ultimate aim of the study will entail the detailed molecular characterisation of recently discovered divergent variants of GLRaV-3, development of a PCR-based method for rapid identification of variants from field - and collection material and the study of biological properties, such as symptom expression and spread within plants, of the two variants.
Presentation(s)
1. Jooste, A E C and Goszczynski, D E. 2006. Differentiation between two distinct molecular variants of GLRaV-3. 15th Meeting of the International Council for the Study of Virus and Virus-like Diseases of the Grapevine (ICVG). 3-7 April. Stellenbosch, South Africa.
2. Jooste, A E C. 2006. Progress on the molecular and biological characterisation of GLRaV-3 variants. Winetech Grapevine Virus Workshop, ARC Infruitec-Nietvoorbij. 15 August. Stellenbosch, South Africa.
3. Jooste, A E C. 2007. GLRaV-3 variants: sequence results, biological experiment and field survey. Winetech Grapevine Virus Workshop. 2 May. ARC-Nietvoorbij-Infruitec, Stellenbosch, South Africa.
4. Jooste, A E C. 2008. Variability on the GLRaV-3 genome. Winetech Virus Workshop. 19 August. ARC Nietvoorbij-Infruitec, Stellenbosch, South Africa.
Final report
http://www.sawislibrary.co.za/dbtextimages/JoosteAEC1.pdf
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