Dar, Z., Extension Service, Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development, Bet Dagan, 50250, Israel;

Potato virus Y (PVY) is the most common virus infecting potato worldwide. We analysed potato tuber PVY infections from the major Israeli growing region in 2014-2017. Isolates were characterized by multiplex PCR according to Chikh-Ali et al. (Plant Disease 97, 1370, 2013), whose primers were not fully compatible with the Israeli isolates. New primers were designed for a multiplex PCR assay to differentiate the Israeli isolates. Three recombinant strains were observed: PVY NTNa (72% of the isolates), PVY NWi (24%) and PVY Syr-III (found only in 2015). The archetypal PVY O strain was found only once. The classical PVY strains have recently been displaced by recombinant forms, with PVY NTNa dominating. The Israeli isolates appear very similar to those of Europe (the seed tuber source), except for PVY Syr-III . © 2019, Springer-Verlag GmbH Austria, part of Springer Nature.