Disease Note.

First Report of a Geminivirus in Hawaii. J. S. Hu, Department of Plant Pathology, University of Hawaii, Honolulu 96822. S. Lius, K. Barry, Z. C. Wu, M. Wang, and R. T. Hamasaki, Department of Plant Pathology, University of Hawaii, Honolulu 96822. Plant Dis. 78:641. Accepted for publication 19 January 1994. Copyright 1994 The American Phytopathological Society. DOI: 10.1094/PD-78-0641A.

Eighty-one samples collected from four areas on the island of Oahu (Waimanalo, Kahuku, Waianae, and Hawaii Kai) of tomato, pepper, bean, eggplant, watermelon, zucchini, sweetpolato, lettuce, or ornamental plants were tested for geminiviruses, because they had severe whitefly (Bemesia tabaci (Gennadius)) infestation and were showing yellowing, mosaic, or stunting symptoms. One sample, Abutilon hybridum (lantern ilima) that had foliar wrinkle mottle symptoms, was positive in indirect ELISA with a monoclonal antibody against a shared epitope of whitefly-transmitted geminiviruses (1) (MAb 3F7, provided by E. Hiebert, University of Florida). Fifteen additional symptomatic lantern 'ilima samples from six different sites were all positive in ELISA. The lantern 'ilima samples were also tested in immunocapture-polymerase chain reaction (IC-PCR) using degenerate primers (PALl v 1978 and 1'ARIc7I5) designed lo amplify the A component of DNA of whitefly-lransmilted geminiviruses (2). An approximately 1.5-kb fragment was obtained, and it was hybridized in Southern blot analysis with a DNA A-componenl probe of bean golden mosaic geminivirus. Healthy control samples of Abutilon spp. were negative in both ELISA and IC-PCR tests. On the basis of results from serology, PCR, and hybridization, we conclude that a geminivirus was identified in Hawaii.