Determination and characterization of virus diseases in the banana cultivars grown in Turkey

The surveys have been conducted during the 2012-2015 period in May and November in Antalya and Mersin provinces where banana is densely cultivated. Banana cultivation is limited to these areas due to the climate conditions in Turkey, hence the study has been located there with the purpose of performing a serologic, biologic and molecular analysis of the 8 banana viruses reported in the world and to characterise the identified viruses. During the study, 8 banana cultivation-related viral factors have been screened by using ELISA and PCR techniques. Following the ELISA analysis, 7 samples have been observed to have been infected with CMV, 13 samples with BSV and 1 sample with BBrMV. The conclusion of PCR analysis was that 4 samples had been infected with CMV while 9 samples have been infected with BSV. The CMV isolates, obtained through series determination and phylogenetic analyses following RT-PCR analysis, have been compared to other CMV races of the world and a 99-96% similarity has been observed with CMV races isolated from vegetables but no similarities have been observed with CMV races obtained from banana.