Abstract:
Australian grapevine viroid
(AGVd), an apscaviroid of the family
Pospiviroidae
, was
recently identified in vineyards of southern Iran.
It had a relatively wide host range and
caused stunting, leaf deformation, mottling and vei
n clearing in experimental hosts upon
mechanical inoculation of nucleic acid extracts or
agroinfiltration of the viroid infectious
cloned DNA. Predicted secondary structure of the AG
VD-Ir showed a difference from the
predicted structure of the type isolate in the viro
id pathogenicity domain. Mutational
analyses showed sequence changes introduced into th
at domain of the AGVD-Ir clone
decreased the viroid’s replication efficiency
in planta
but did not show any effects on its
movement.
Keywords:
Grapevine viroids, Mutagenesis analysis, Host rang
e, Replication efficiency,
Viroid movement.
