First Report of Tomato Spotted Wilt Virus in Oxypetalum coeruleum in Korea

Abstract

<i>Oxypetalum coeruleum</i>, commonly known as Tweedia, is a perennial herbaceous plant of the <i>Apocynaceae</i> family native to southern Brazil and Uruguay. Tweedia plants are grown as one of the most popular ornamental flowers for floral arrangement in Korea. In May 2021, several tweedia plants in a single greenhouse in Gimje, Jeollabuk-do were found to show virus-like symptoms including necrotic rings, vein-clearing, chlorotic mottle, and mosaic on the leaves, and necrosis on the stems. Here, we have identified tomato spotted wilt virus (TSWV) in symptomatic tweedia leaves by applying high-throughput RNA sequencing. In the result, a single infection by TSWV was verified without mixed infections of different virus species. To confirm the presence of TSWV, a reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction was performed with a specific primer set to the N gene of TSWV. The complete genomic sequence of L, M, and S segments of TSWV ’Oxy’ isolate were determined and deposited in GenBank under accession numbers LC671525, LC671638, and LC671639, respectively. In the phylogenetic tree analysis by maximum likelihood method, ’Oxy’ isolate showed a high relationship with TSWV ’Gumi’ isolate from <i>Gerbera jamesonii</i> in Gyeongsangbuk-do, Korea; for all three RNA segments. To our knowledge, this is the first report of TSWV infection of <i>O. coeruleum</i> in Korea.