Occurrence of blueberry mosaic associated virus in highbush blueberry trees with blueberry mosaic disease in Japan

Highbush blueberry trees with symptoms of blueberry mosaic disease (BMD) were observed in Akita, Iwate, and Yamagata Prefectures in Japan. In reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction testing, single DNA fragments were amplified from total RNA extracted from all diseased trees using primers specific to a nucleocapsid protein (NP) gene of blueberry mosaic associated virus (BlMaV). Sequencing analysis of the amplified products showed 94.3–94.8 % nucleotide sequence identity with the NP gene. This is the first report of BlMaV associated with BMD in Japan.