Occurrence and molecular characterization of Turkish isolates of Turnip mosaic virus

A total of 142 samples of plants showing symptoms of Turnip mosaic virus (TuMV) were collected from fields planted to Brassicaceae and non-Brassicaceae crops in the southwest Marmora region of Turkey, during the 2004-06 growing seasons. Using enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) TuMV was detected in the main brassica-crop fields of Turkey, with an overall incidence of 13.4%. TuMV was detected in samples from Brussels sprouts, cabbage, wild mustard, radish and wild radish, but not cauliflower or broccoli. The full-length sequences of the genomic RNAs of two biologically distinct isolates, TUR1 and TUR9, were determined. Recombination analyses showed that TUR1 was an intralineage recombinant, whereas TUR9 was a non-recombinant. Phylogenetic analyses of the Turkish isolates with those from the rest of the world showed that the TUR1 and TUR9 isolates belonged to world-Brassica and Asian-Brassica/Raphanus groups, respectively. This study showed that TuMV is widely distributed in the Asia Minor region of Turkey.