Biological, serological and molecular characterization of Potato virus Y strains isolated from potato (Solanum tuberosum L.)

Viral diseases are among the most critical determinants of potato production in many parts of the world, and this is reflected in the importance of developing early diagnosis methods to detect these diseases in the fields. The study showed that potato fields in Nineveh Province are infected with several strains of Potato Y virus, depending on the symptoms of potato or indicator plants and serological tests. For the first time locally in Nineveh Province and at the level of Iraq, using a single molecular test and one step, it was possible to distinguish between the ancient parental strains (PVYº and PVYN), as well as between the PVYNTNT hybrid strain resulting from recombination between the genome of the parental strains when using the pairs of primers N-868-7-F + N -9236-R, which yielded a genome segment of DNA with a length of 441 bp. The emergence of such a new strain in the tested samples in the potato fields in Nineveh province infected with PVY may have arisen from mixed infections. Keywords: PVY strains; PVYN; RT-PCR; Solanum tuberosum L.