Detection and characterization of virus and photoplasma agents causing diseases in pomegranate orchards in the Eastern Mediterranean region

This research was carried out in the years 2020-2021 in order to determine and characterize the viruses and phytoplasma agents that cause diseases in the pomegranate (Punica granatum) plant, which has an important place among the fruit species and whose production areas are increasing day by day in the world and in our country. As a result of the surveys carried out in the pomegranate orchards in Adana and Mersin provinces and districts, backward death of the plants, deformation of the leaves, yellowing, redness and signs of chlorosis were observed. The causes of these symptoms were investigated in terms of viruses and phytoplasmas. The presence of ApMV, PNRSV, SLRV, ArMV, ASGV, CLRV, RpRSV, ToRSV, CMV, GLRaV, AMV viruses and phytoplasma agents, which are thought to cause infection in pomegranate cultivars, were checked in the tNAs obtained from the samples isolated from Total Nucleic Acid (tNA). For these purposes, tNAs of suspected plant materials were tested by RT-PCR and PCR methods using primer pairs specific to viruses and phytoplasma agents during laboratory tests. It was tested against phytoplasma agents first by direct-PCR using a universal primer pair and then by nested-PCR using a nested primer pair. As a result, as a result of the tests in the pomegranate orchards, the samples were found to be healty in terms of the viral and phytoplasma. The reason for this can be listed as the possibility that the sources produced clonally by vegetative methods may be free from the tested factors, as well as the limitation of the potential vectors of the pesticides used extensively, the phenolic or antioxidant components in the pomegranate plant.