An elongated virus was isolated from artichoke crops in Liguria, and a 700-bp fragment was amplified by RT-PCR using oligonucleotides to detect members of the family Potyviridae. Comparison of fragment sequences showed 98% identity at the nucleotide level with the ranunculus isolate of the macluravirus Ranunculus latent virus (RaLV). RaLV was then detected by DAS-ELISA in symptomatic and asymptomatic artichoke plants from Liguria, Sardinia and Latium. The sequence of a 5.5-kb region was assembled from a cDNA library, and a 500-bp NIa fragment showed 80% identity to Artichoke latent virus.