Screening Lycopersicon Accessions for Resistance to Tomato Yellow Leaf Curl Virus: Presence of Viral DNA and Symptom Development. Y. Zakay, Department of Field and Vegetable Crops and the Otto Warburg Center for Biotechnology in Agriculture, Faculty of Agriculture, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Rehovot 76100, P.O. Box 12, Israel. N. Navot, M. Zeidan, N. Kedar, H. Rabinowitch, H. Czosnek, and D. Zamir. Department of Field and Vegetable Crops and the Otto Warburg Center for Biotechnology in Agriculture, Faculty of Agriculture, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Rehovot 76100, P.O. Box 12, Israel. Plant Dis. 75:279-281. Accepted for publication 26 July 1990. Copyright 1991 The American Phytopathological Society. DOI: 10.1094/PD-75-0279.

Twenty-three Lycopersicon accessions representing five tomato species were screened for resistance to the tomato yellow leaf curl virus (TYLCV). Plants were grown in a field naturally infested with Bemisia tabaci, the natural vector of this geminiviral disease. The screened genotypes were examined for the presence of viral DNA and symptom development at 2-wk intervals. Tomato cultivars harbored the virus and developed symptoms. Accessions of the wild species L. pimpinellifolium, L. hirsutum, and L. peruvianum showed variance in their response to infection. An accession of L. chilense presented the highest level of resistance: Only two of 58 plants contained viral DNA and none developed symptoms.