Disease Note.

First Report of Impatiens Necrotic Spot Virus in Asplenium nidus-avis in Spain.. A. Lavina, Departament de Patologia Vegetal, Institut de Recerca i Tecnologia Agroalimentaries, O8348 Cabrils, Barcelona, Spain. A. Batlle Departament de Patologia Vegetal, Institut de Recerca i Tecnologia Agroalimentaries, O8348 Cabrils, Barcelona, Spain. Plant Dis. 78:316. Accepted for publication 16 November 1993. Copyright 1994 The American Phytopathological Society. DOI: 10.1094/PD-78-0316E.

In May 1991, leaves of fern plants (Asplenium nidus-avis L.) in a 10,000-m2 greenhouse in Spain showed ring spot and numerous necrotic lesions. Within 6 mo of the first appearance of symptoms, all plants in the greenhouse were affected and seriously damaged. The damage was initially thought to likely be due to a fungal or bacterial pathogen, bul neither was isolated. The Impatiens serotype of tomato spotted wilt virus (TSWV-I), recently renamed impatiens necrotic spot virus (INSV) (I), was detected in affected ferns by a double-antibody sandwich ELISA with polyclonal antisera to TSWV-I and TSWV-I+L (lettuce). Antisera were provided by Sanoli (France). All assays against TSWV-L antisera were negative. Highest virus titers were found in the crown and young shoots. Tilers in the leaves were low. When spores from diseased plants were germinated and cultured in vitro, no vims was detected in prothallia or in plants propagated from them. This is believed to be the first report of INSV from a pteridophyte and the first report of INSV in ferns in Spain.