First report of raspberry yellows disease caused by raspberry bushy dwarf virus in Japan

Severe yellowing of leaves was observed on red raspberry in Akita Prefecture. When inoculated with sap from symptomatic raspberry leaves, Chenopodium quinoa plants developed chlorotic ringspot and mottling that are typical of raspberry bushy dwarf virus (RBDV) infection. In western blot analysis, an antibody to the coat protein (CP) of RBDV reacted against ca. 30-kDa protein specific to the diseased trees. In RT-PCR testing for RBDV, single DNA fragments were amplified from total RNA samples of the diseased trees. The nucleotide sequences of the DNA fragments covering the entire CP region revealed 87–97 % identities with those of RBDV isolates.