Abstract
A virus with filamentous particles ca. 700 nm long, denoted Fig latent virus 1 (FLV-1) is widespread in Western Mecca region, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA) fig orchards. RT-PCR assay was conducted on 80 fig samples collected from four fig-growing provinces including Fatima, Khulais, Rabigh and Al Shifa valleys which consisted of leaf tissues gathered from Capri fig and common fig to investigate the presence of FLV-1. Results showed that the virus was present in the survey areas with different levels of infections. The infection rate reached 33.75%, with a peak of 35% in Alshifa and Fatima valley provinces followed by 40% and 25% in Rabigh and Khulais valley provinces respectively.
The specific primers CPtr-s and CPtr-a for FLV-1-cp. gene yielded 442 base pair DNA fragments. The results showed the isolate belong to characterize the FLV-1KSA isolate. The following sequences were used in the comparison: FLV-1(FN377573.1), FLV1(KM516762.1) and FLV-1(KM516763.1). The partial nucleotide sequence alignment showed (99%) homology between FLV-1(FN377573.1) isolate and FLV-1(KM516762.1) isolate and 98% between FLV1(KM516762.1) isolate and FLV-1(KM516763.1) isolate. On the other hand, the sequence alignment also indicated that the FMV-1(KSA) isolate is a similarity with FLV-1(FN377573.1), FLV-1(KM516762.1) and FLV-1(KM516763.1) showing 86% according to the phylogenetic homology tree.