Occurrence of Small RNAs in Severely Diseased Vegetable Crops. C. FAGOAGA, Instituto Valenciano de Investigaciones Agrarias (IVIA), Apartado Oficial, 46113 Moncada, Valencia, Spain. J. A. PINA, and N. DURAN-VILA, Instituto Valenciano de Investigaciones Agrarias (IVIA), Apartado Oficial, 46113 Moncada, Valencia, Spain. Plant Dis. 78:749-753. Accepted for publication 19 January 1994. Copyright 1994 The American Phytopathological Society. DOI: 10.1094/PD-78-0749.

Vegetable crops in the eastern part of Spain have been shown to be affected by a number of virus and viruslike diseases. A complex of viruses has been considered to be the cause of the severe symptoms especially observed during the summer in tomato. The results of a survey conducted to evaluate the incidence of viroidlike RNAs in vegetable crops revealed a surprisingly high frequency of small RNAs of nonhost origin present in a wide range of host tissues. A series of CMV-related salRNAs have been positively identified by molecular hybridization A new viroidlike RNA, tentatively named eggplant latent viroid (El.Vd), was found in eggplant.