Disease Note.

First Report of Tomato Bushy Stunt Virus in Almeria (Spain). I. M. Cuadrado, Centro de Investigacion y Desarrollo Horticola, P.O. Box 91, El Ejido, Almeria . J. M. Guerra-Sanz, C. Garcia, and M. I. Aguilar, Centro de Investigacion y Desarrollo Horticola, P.O. Box 91, El Ejido, Almeria; and P. Moreno, Instituto Valenciano de Investigaciones Agrarias, Apdo. Oficial, Moncada, Valencia, Spain. Plant Dis. 79:1186. Accepted 5 December 1994. Copyright 1995 The American Phytopathological Society. DOI: 10.1094/PD-79-1186C.

Tomatoes grown under plastic greenhouses have been a valuable out-of-season crop in Almeria (southeastern Spain) in the last two decades. In 1992, a new disease causing leaf yellowing, chlorotic blotches in fruits, necrotic streaks on the stem, crown necrosis, and sometimes the death of the plant was found in several greenhouses. Disease incidence ranged from 20 to 100% of plants affected. Mechanical transmission to tomato and other indicator plants induced symptoms similar to those described for tomato bushy stunt virus (TBSV), the type member of the genus Tom-busvirus (1). A 42 kD protein, detected by sodium dodecyl sulfate-poly acrylamide gel electrophoresis in extracts from infected plants but not in those from healthy plants, reacted in a Western blot (immunoblot) to an antiserum to petunia asteriod mosaic virus (Loewe Biochemica, Munich, Germany), a strain of TBSV. Infected plants were also identified with this antiserum by double antibody sandwich-enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay. Four double stranded RNAs (dsRNA) with electrophoretic mobilities similar to those reported for TBSV (2) were detected in symptomatic plants, but no dsRNA was detected in extracts from healthy plants. These results indicate that this disease of tomato is caused by TBSV.