Influence of different Plum pox virus strains on chemical composition of ‘Čačanska lepotica' plum fruit cultivar

Abstract

Plum pox virus (PPV) is economically the most important virus of stone fruits. In sensitive plum (Prunus domestica L.) cultivars PPV causes foliar symptoms, fruits deformation, changes in the chemical composition of fruits and premature fruit drop. Fruits of ‘Čačanska lepotica’ plum cultivar were collected from an experimental orchard in locality Čačak. Samples were collected from 15 trees (5 infected with PPV-D, 5 infected with PPV-Rec and 5 from PPV-free trees). Trees for sampling were selected after the RT-PCR analysis of the trees from the plantation using PPV strain-specific primers. The fruits were picked at five different terms at seven-days interval during maturation stage, starting from a fully green and immature fruits as the initial harvest stage, and terminating four weeks later with fruits being soft and overripened. All tested samples, 10 PPV-infected and 5 uninfected, were further chemically analyzed. The analyses included determination of total dry matter, soluble solid content, pH value and titratable acidity, total anthocyanin content, total phenolic content and antioxidant capacity. The aim of this work was to reveal the possible changes in chemical composition in the fruits of ‘Čačanska lepotica’ cultivar, grown at the same locality, caused by the two different PPV strains.