TOMATO MOSAIC VIRUS ON CUCUMBER AND POTATO IN IRAN

Abstract

During the growing seasons of 2010-2012, surveys of vegetable crops and potatoes were conducted in the central and southern provinces of Iran to detect tobamoviruses. Overall, 201 fields and greenhouses were surveyed and 1615 symptomatic leaf samples were collected. Leaf samples were tested by double-antibody sandwich enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (DAS-ELISA) using specific antisera (Bioreba, Switzerland) produced against Tomato mosaic virus (ToMV). Results showed that 17.5% of the samples reacted to ToMV in DAS-ELISA. None of the samples collected from greenhouses were found infected with the virus. To confirm the presence of ToMV, 78 ELISA-positive samples were tested by reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction (RTPCR) using previously described primers designed in the coat protein gene (Letschert et al., 2002) and by sequencing. Amplicons of the expected size of ca. 0.75 and 0.80 kb were obtained by RT-PCR using primer pairs Tob-Uni1/ToMVspec and Tob-Uni1/Tob-Uni2, respectively. The nucleotide sequence of the coat protein gene of four representative ToMV isolates from tomato, eggplant, potato and cucumber was determined and deposited in GenBank as accession Nos. KC914397 to KC914400. BLAST analyses confirmed the presence of ToMV in these four vegetable crops and potato. This study indicated the prevalence of tobamoviruses, especially ToMV, in vegetable crops and potatoes in Iran. To our knowledge, this is the first report of ToMV on cucumber and potato in Iran. It is anticipated that our findings will help improve the quality of seed certification programs.