Pelargonium zonate spot virus (PZSV) was first isolated from tomato in southern Italy in 1982 (1) and later was also reported from Spain (3) and France (2). Infected tomato plants showed stunting, malformation, yellow rings and line patterns on the leaves, and concentric chlorotic ringspots on the stems. In June of 2006, more than 100 tomato (Lycopersicon esculentum Mill.) plants exhibiting symptoms similar to PZSV were observed in seven acres of tomato fields in Yolo County, California. The causal agent was mechanically transmitted to several indicator species. Symptoms on infected plants included local lesions on Beta macrocarpa, Chenopodium amaranticolor, C. capitatum, C. quinoa, Cucumis melo, Cucurbita pepo, and Tetragonia expansa, and systemic infection on Capsicum annuum, Chenopodium murale, L. esculentum, Nicotiana benthamiana, N. clevelandii, N. glutinosa, N. tabacum, Physalis floridana, and P. wrightii. Two field-infected tomato plants and one each of the mechanically inoculated host plant were positive with double-antibody sandwich (DAS)-ELISA using a commercial PZSV IdentiKit (Neogen Europe Ltd., Ayr, Scotland, UK). Partially purified virions stained with 2% uranyl acetate contained spherical to ovate particles. The particle diameters ranged between 25 and 35 nm. Published sequences of PZSV (GenBank Accession Nos. NC_003649 for RNA1, NC_003650 for RNA2, and NC_003651 for RNA3) were used to design three sets of primer pairs specific for PZSV RNA1 (R1-F: 5′ TGGCTGGCTTTTTCCGAACG 3′ and R1-R: 5′ CCTAATCTGTTGGTCCGAACTGTC 3′), RNA2 (R2-F: 5′ GCGTGCGTATCATCAGAAATGG 3′ and R2-R: 5′ ATCGGGAGCAG AGAAACACCTTCC 3′), and RNA3 (R3-F: 5′ CTCACCAACTGAAT GCTCTGGAC 3′ and R3-R: 5′ TGGATGCGTCTTTCCGAACC 3′) for reverse transcription (RT)-PCR tests. Total nucleic acids were extracted from field-infected tomato plants and partially purified virions for RT-PCR. RT-PCR gave DNA amplicons of the expected sizes. The DNA amplicons were gel purified and sequenced. The sequenced amplicons had 92, 94, and 96% nt sequence identity to PZSV RNA1, RNA2, and RNA3, respectively. The symptomatology, serology, particle morphology, and nucleotide sequences confirm the presence of PZSV in a tomato field in California. To our knowledge, this is the first report of the occurrence of PZSV in the United States.
References: (1) D. Gallitelli. Ann. Appl. Biol. 100:457, 1982. (2) K. Gebre-Selassie et al. Plant Dis. 86:1052, 2002. (3) M. Luis-Arteaga et al. Plant Dis. 84:807, 2000.
