Research Information System
International Advances in Plant Virology 2025, Murcia, Spain, 8 - 11 April 2025, pp.29, (Summary Text)
Analysis of Blueberry Viromes Through High-Throughput Sequencing in
Turkiye
Akkan1, R., Roumi2, V., Çağlayan, K.1*
1Plant
Protection Department, Mustafa Kemal University, Agriculture Faculty, 31060,
Antakya Hatay, Turkey
2Plant
Protection Department, Faculty of Agriculture, University of Maragheh, 55187,
Maragheh, Iran
*Corresponding Author: kcaglayano@mku.edu.tr
Blueberry
(Vaccinium spp.) is host for over 15 viruses. So far, only blueberry mosaic associated virus (BlMaV: Ophiovirus vaccinii) and blueberry leaf
mottle virus (BLMOV: Nepovirus myrtilli) have been detected in Türkiye
by using traditional detection methods (RT-PCR and/or DAS-ELISA). In order to
study full genome of known viruses and presence of possible novel viruses infecting
blueberries, high-throughput sequencing (HTS) was employed to analyze virome of
three symptomatic blueberries (two cultivated and one wild blueberry) by
combination of direct mapping of the unique reads and de novo assembly of the
reads followed by filtering contigs longer than 200nt using tblastx/blastn.
HTS
analysis revealed presence of several known and novel viruses on blueberries as
follows: BlMaV, BLMoV, blueberry virus L (BlVL: unclassified Luteovirus),
cucumber mosaic virus (CMV: Cucumovirus), blueberry latent virus (BlLV),
Beta vulgaris mitovirus 1, Plasmopara viticola lesion associated
ourmia-like virus, grapevine associated narnavirus-1 and Botrytis cinerea
mitoviruses 1-4. The two latest viruses were identified in wild blueberry,
while the remainings were found in cultivated varieties.
Furthermore,
we conducted a survey on blueberry infecting viruses in eight provinces located
in different geographical regions of Türkiye. Analyses of 290 leaf samples
collected from wild and commercial blueberry orchards showed that 29 samples
were infected by BlMaV (10%), 7 samples by BLMoV (2.4%) and 75 samples by BlVL
(25,86%). The prevalence of BlVL was significantly higher than that of BlMaV
and BlMoV in the tested samples. Its complete genome was sequenced which had
90.29% nucleotide identity with 2017-FRV-NGS41
isolate (OQ686746, USA). In phylogenetic
analysis, the Rize isolates were found to be divergent from the other related luteoviruses
and were clustered into a distinc clade.
The BlVL isolates showed no evidence of a valid recombination signal. Subsequently,
complete genome of Turkish isolate of BlMaV was determined
by HTS analysis and confirmed by Sanger sequencing. The BlMaV shared nucleotide
identities range from 90% (RNA1) – 94% (RNA2 & RNA3) with the reference sequence.
Phylogenetic analysis showed that Turkish isolates grouped
with three Japanese isolates (LC066299, LC066300 and LC066301). No valid
recombination signal was detected among the BlMaV isolates.
Here,
we report occurrence of BlVL for the first time in Turkiye and research is
currently being conducted to investigate presence of other viruses detected via
HTS analysis. This study highlights the importance of ongoing inspection
efforts to monitor and control the spread of emerging viral diseases on both
wild and cultivated blueberries. Detection of blueberry virome can be
accelerated by utilizing cost-effective and sensitive techniques such as
virion-associated nucleic acids enrichment protocol (VANA) combined with HTS
during extensive samplings.
Key words: Vaccinium
spp., HTS, phylogenetic analysis, BlMaV,
BlMoV, BlVL
This study was supported
by TUBITAK-TOVAG grant number 213O042.