Investigation into the strain typing of Potato Virus Y isolates in Egypt

Potato Virus Y (PVY) is well recognized world-wide as an important virus of potato with damaging effect on both the crop yield and quality. Recent research has revealed a wide range of PVY strain diversity and complexity. The high degree of PVY recombinant types reported in some areas, has intrigued investigation into the efficacy of tools used for strain identification. PCR and ELISA are routinely and reliably used for PVY detection, however, the degree of information reflecting strain genotypes by various identification tools is variable and incoherent. Overall incidence of PVY from different potato samples collected in 2018/2019 in some locations in Egypt is estimated by RT-PCR to be 12%. The most prevalent strain detected was of PVYN origin. Phylogeny analysis revealed high degree of relatedness to isolates from specific locations, which may indicate probable origin of the isolates. Identification of recombinant strains of PVYN origin by both M-RT-PCR and ELISA has indicated that PVYNTN, PVYN−Wilga and PVYN:O are the most prevalent recombinant types.