Simultaneous detection of four viruses affecting apple and pear by molecular hybridization using a polyprobe.

The viruses Apple stem grooving virus (ASGV), Apple chlorotic leaf spot virus (ACLSV), Apple stem pitting virus (ASPV) and Apple mosaic virus (ApMV) are common in apples and pears and main targets of detection in propagation materials. This study aimed at demonstrating the usefulness of the hybridization method with a non-radioactive probe for simultaneous detection of these four viruses. The sensitivity of this method was suffi ciently high enabling the detection of ASGV, ACLSV, ASPV and ApMV in total RNA extracted from infected samples. The probe specifi city was confi rmed by reaction with homologous viral cDNA, individually cloned for each virus.