During July 2005, approximately 23% of tomato plants (Solanum lycopersicum L. ‘Sebring’) in a commercial field in St. Clair County, Alabama showed symptoms of stunting, leaf deformation, mottling, and reduced leaf size, which resembled symptoms of Tomato yellow leaf curl virus (TYLCV). A high population of whiteflies (Bemisia tabaci) was observed in this field, and as the season progressed, 100% of the plants became symptomatic. During October 2006, similar symptoms in tomato were observed at low incidences (less than 10%) in a commercial greenhouse in Jefferson County. Two samples from St. Clair County and six from Jefferson County were collected and tested for the presence of a begomovirus by PCR using three pairs of primers, PAR1c496 and PAL1v1978, a degenerate primer pair designed to amplify regions of the begomovirus A component, PBL1v2040 and PCRc154, a degenerate primer pair that amplifies a hypervariable region of the begomovirus B component (3), and C473 and PTYC1v2406, which are specific to TYLCV (1,2). Primer pair PAR1c496 and PAL1v1978 produced two amplicons (1,360 and 1,159 bp) in all samples tested, which suggests the presence of a monopartite and bipartite begomovirus. Primer pair pBL1v2040 and PCRc154 produced a 678-bp amplicon that would be consistent with the presence of a bipartite begomovirus. Primer pair C473 and PTYC1v2406 produced an 850-bp amplicon that would be consistent with the presence of TYLCV. Sequence analysis revealed that the 1,360-bp amplicon had 98% sequence identity to isolates of TYLCV from Cuba (GenBank Accession No. AJ223505), the Dominican Republic (GenBank Accession No. (AF04715), Florida (GenBank Accession Nos. AF260331 and AY530931), Egypt (GenBank Accession No. AY594174), and Almeria (GenBank Accession No. AJ489258). The 1,159-bp amplicon had a 97 to 99% sequence identity to the A component of Tomato mottle virus (ToMoV) Florida (GenBank Accession Nos. L14460, EF028241, and M90495) and Puerto Rico (GenBank Accession No. AY965900). Each of the eight tomato samples were shown to be infected with TYLCV and ToMoV. Symptoms of plants infected with both viruses resembled those of TYLCV because the milder symptoms of ToMoV are masked in the field by the more severe symptoms of TYLCV. To our knowledge, this is the first report of ToMoV and TYLCV in the state of Alabama.
Reference: (1) M. Ghanim et al. Virology 240:295, 1998. (2) M. K. Nakhla et al. Phytopathol. Mediterr. 32:163, 1993. (3) M. R. Rojas et al. Plant Dis. 77:340, 1993.
