Peach latent mosaic viroid in naturally infected sweet cherry trees in southern Italy

Peach latent mosaic viroid (PLMVd) was found in naturally infected sweet cherry trees grown in commercial orchards in southern Italy. The viroid was detected in nucleic acid extracts of symptomless leaves by molecular hybridization with a PLMVd cRNA probe. The viroid was transmitted by grafting from sweet cherry to peach seedlings and identified in peach by molecular hybridization.