MOLECULAR CHARACTERIZATION OF APPLE MOSAIC VIRUS ISOLATES FROM APPLE ORCHARDS OF CANAKKALE PROVINCE IN TURKEY

Canakkale is a city that has the most important apple production capacity of the Western Marmara Region. As it is the case in the whole world, it is considered that the most important viral disease in apple orchards in canakkale is the Apple mosaic virus (ApMV). In the scope of this study, the molecular characterization of 7 ApMV isolates obtained from the apple production orchards in canakkale and from its counties in 2011-2012 has been performed. For this purpose, 628 bp of the coat protein genes of the ApMV isolates have been amplified, cloned and sequenced. In the multiple series analyses, similarities have been shown between canakkale ApMV isolates at nucleotide level (nt) 99%, amino acid level (a.a.) 98-100%; with world isolates at nt 89-99%, at a.a. level 91-99%. The phylogenetic relations between the canakkale ApMV isolates and the world isolates have been defined at nt and a.a. level. Generally, three groups have been formed in phylogenetic trees. It has been observed that the ApMV isolates in phylogenetic trees are firstly separated into groups according to the hosts, and then into sub -groups among themselves according to the hosts and geographical origin.