The Region of Murcia is one of the main apricot growing areas in Spain. In these area, apricot culture is being affected seriously by sharka disease, caused by Plum pox virus. So far, the resistance evaluation process has been carried out, mainly, in sealed greenhouses, but due to difficulties in evaluation methodology in control conditions, it is necessary to complement the resistance test with field assays to ensure the plant behavior against sharka disease, as well as to have the opportunity of evaluate the sharka incidence on fruits.

In this study, 10 new cultivars and 30 selections of the CEBAS-CSIC have been grafted in a commercial farm strongly affected by the disease. Visual symptoms observation in leaves and fruits were done, later confirmed by ELISA and RT-PCR. Also we have compared the field results with the greenhouse and quarantine shelter assays carried out in parallel.

We have classified the genotypes in three groups: susceptible (leaves and fruits infected), tolerant (leaves with strong or scarce symptoms or fruits very mild or not affected) and resistant (leaves and fruits without symptoms and ELISA and RT-PCR negative). The cultivars ¿Rojo Pasión, ¿Murciana, ¿Mirlo Blanco and ¿Valorange confirmed its resistance to PPV, being an alternative for the threatened apricot culture.

The controversial results obtained in the different test performed in field, greenhouse and quarantine shelter as well as the symptoms expression on leaves and fruits will be also discussed.