Disease Note.

Detection of TYLCV in Cuba. P. L. Ramos, Division de Plantas, Centro de Ingenierfa Genetica y Biotec- nologia, La Habana, Cuba . O. Guerra, V. Dorestes, and N. Ramirez, Division de Plantas, Centro de Ingenierfa Genetica y Biotec- nologia, La Habana, Cuba; R. Rivera-Bustamante, Centro de Investiga-ci6n y de Estudios Avanzados Unidad Irapuato, Apartado Postal 629, Irapuato, Gto, Mexico; and P. Oramas, Division de Plantas, Centro de Ingenierfa Genetica y Biotecnologia, La Habana, Cuba. Plant Dis. 80:1208. Accepted for publication 9 August 1996. Copyright 1996 The American Phytopathological Society. DOI: 10.1094/PD-80-1208C.

Tomato (Lycopersicon lycopersicum (L.) Karsten ex Fawll.) plants showing symptoms typical of tomato yellow leaf curl virus (TYLCV) infection have been observed in Cuba since 1987. The disease is now widespread within the country, causing up to 100% crop loss in some areas (e.g., south La Habana). The causal agent was transmitted by the whitefly (Bemisia tabaci Genn) and by grafting to tomato and Datura stramonium L. Several Oligonucleotide primers for polymerase chain reaction (PCR) amplification were designed based on the published sequences for TYLCV-Israel (TYLCV-I) and TYLCV-Sardinia. The size of the amplified fragments corresponded to those expected for TYLCV-I. The open reading frame (ORF) VI was cloned in pBluescript SK+ and sequenced. The nucleotide sequence produced the following predicted amino acid sequence: MPKRPGDIIISTPVSKVRRSLNFDSPYSNRAA VP1VQGTNKRQSWTYRPMYRKPRIYRMYRSPDVPRGCEGPCKVQSYEQRDDIKHTGVVRCVSDVTRGSG1THRVGKRFCVKSIYFLGKVWMDENIKKQNHTNQVMFFLVRDRRPYGSSPMDFGQVFNMFDNEPSTATVKNDLRDRFQVMRKFHATVIGGPSGMKEQALVKRFFKINSHVTYNHQEAAKYENHTENALLLYMACTHASNPVYTTMKIRIYFYDS ISN258. When this sequence was compared with the translated version of the EMBL database the best scores were: 97.3%, TYLCV-I mild isolate (accession number X763I9); 95.4%, TYLCV-I, (XI5656); 88.4% TYLCV-Murcia (Z25751); 88.0% TYLCV-Sicily (Z28390); and 85.7% TYLCV-Sardinia (X61153). Similarly, a comparison performed with a sequence from an isolate from central Saudi Arabia (TYLCV-nsa), a sequence not deposited in the database, resulted in a 93.4% identity (1). These results confirm the presence of TYLCV-I in Cuba. A similar finding was recently reported in the Dominican Republic (2).