First Report of Tomato Brown Rugose Fruit Virus Infecting the Tomato Crop in Saudi Arabia.

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Tomato (Solanum lycopersicum L.) is the most economically important member of family Solanaceae and cultivated worldwide and one of the most important crops in Saudi Arabia. The aim of this study is screening of the most common viruses in Riyadh region and identified the presence of tomato brown rugose fruit virus (ToBRFV) in Saudi Arabia. In January 2021, unusual fruit and leaf symptoms were observed in several greenhouses cultivating tomatoes commercially in Riyadh Region, Saudi Arabia. Fruit symptoms showed irregular brown spots, deformation, and yellowing spots which render the fruits non-marketable, while the leaf symptoms included mottling, mosaic with dark green wrinkled and narrowing. These plants presented the symptoms similar to those described in other studies (Salem et al., 2015, Luria et al., 2017). A total 45 Symptomatic leaf samples were collected and tested serologically against suspected important tomato viruses including: tomato chlorosis virus, tomato spotted wilt virus, tomato yellow leaf curl virus, tomato chlorotic spot virus, tomato aspermy virus, tomato bushy stunt virus, tomato black ring virus, tomato ringspot virus, tomato mosaic virus, pepino mosaic virus and ToBRFV using Enzyme linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) test (LOEWE®, Biochemica, Germany), according to the manufacturers' instructions. The obtained results showed that 84.4% (38/45) of symptomatic tomato samples were infected with at least one of the detected viruses. The obtained results showed that 55.5% (25/45) of symptomatic tomato samples were found positive to ToBRFV, three out of 25 samples (12%) were singly infected, however 22 out of 45 (48.8%) had mixed infection between ToBRFV and with at least one of tested viruses. A sample with a single infection of ToBRFV was mechanically inoculated into different host range including: Chenopodium amaranticolor, C. quinoa, C. album, C. glaucum, Nicotiana glutinosa, N. benthamiana, N. tabacum, N. occidentalis, Gomphrena globosa, Datura stramonium, Solanum lycopersicum, S. nigrum, petunia hybrida and symptoms were observed weekly and the systemic presence of the ToBRFV was confirmed by RT-PCR and partial nucleotide sequence. A Total RNA was extracted from DAS-ELISA positive samples using Thermo Scientific GeneJET Plant RNA Purification Mini Kit. Reverse transcription-Polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) was carried out using specific primers F-3666 (5´-ATGGTACGAACGGCGGCAG-3´) and R-4718 (5´-CAATCCTTGATGTG TTTAGCAC-3´) which amplified a fragment of 1052 bp of Open Reading Frame (ORF) encoding the RNA-dependent RNA polymerase (RdRp). (Luria et al. 2017). RT-PCR products were analyzed using 1.5 % agarose gel electrophoresis. RT-PCR products were sequenced in both directions by Macrogen Inc. Seoul, South Korea. Partial nucleotide sequences obtained from selected samples were submitted to GenBank and assigned the following accession numbers: MZ130501, MZ130502, and MZ130503. BLAST analysis of Saudi isolates of ToBRFV showed that the sequence shared nucleotide identities ranged between 98.99 % to 99.50 % among them and 98.87-99.87 % identity with ToBRFV isolates from Palestine (MK881101 and MN013187), Turkey (MK888980, MT118666, MN065184, and MT107885), United Kingdom (MN182533), Egypt (MN882030 and MN882031), Jordan (KT383474), USA (MT002973), Mexico (MK273183 and MK273190), Canada (MN549395) and Netherlands (MN882017, MN882018, MN882042, MN882023, MN882024, and MN882045). To our knowledge, this is the first report of occurrence of ToBRFV infecting tomato in Saudi Arabia which suggests its likely introduction by commercial seeds from countries reported this virus and spread in greenhouses through mechanical means. The author(s) declare no conflict of interest. Keywords: Tomato brown rugose fruit virus, tomato, ELISA, RT-PCR, Saudi Arabia