An unusual disorder occurred on ‘Vernaccia’ vine, particularly in the typical cultivation area of the variety, in the province of Oristano. Main symptom is the decaying of wood and bark. This causes the loss of the bark on the circumference of the trunk and causes the plants to die. Degradation can develop very deep in the wood rings. Affected rings can detach from the new formed ones.
The infectious process is very serious in the younger plants and can slow their evolution in the years. Furthermore it does not allow the recovery of the affected plants. In some vineyards 4 % of affected plants occur. Mortality can reach up to 20%, of the affected plants and is very high during the early years after infection.
A bacterium has been constantly isolated from decaying tissues; for its morphological and physiological characters and the response to serological tests it has been included in the Pseudomonas syringae Van Hall group. Pathogenicity tests carried out on ‘Vernaccia’ vines and other varieties resulted always positive; the bacterium has always been reisolated from artificially affected areas. The latter were much diffused and, sometimes, reproduced the typical symptomatology of the disease observed in nature.
An indirect Dot‐ELISA was compared with DAS‐ELISA for detecting Artichoke Latent Virus (ALV) both in purified preparations and in crude sap from “Spinoso sardo” artichoke leaves.
Antigen diluted samples (1 μl) were first spotted on nitrocellulose (NC) and polyvinylidene difluoride (PVDF) membranes. After blocking, the membranes were incubated in rabbit anti‐ALV IgG, then in goat anti‐rabbit IgG—alkaline phosphatase conjugate, and finally exposed to substrate and examined for a coloured precipitate.
The minimum detection levels for ALV by Dot‐ELISA were 125 pg of purified virus and 1/2,000 dilution of virus‐infected sap on NC, and 83.3 pg of purified virus and 1/4,000 dilution of virus‐infected sap on PVDF, as compared with 50 ng of purified virus and 1/1,000 dilution of virus‐infected sap detectable by DAS‐ELISA.
This indirect Dot‐ELISA proved to be more sensitive and more economical than DAS‐ELISA, and can be completed in as little as 5—6 hours.
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