The Pepper yellow mosaic virus (PepYMV) naturally infects chili and sweet pepper, as well as tomato plants in Brazil, leading to severe losses. This work reports the reaction to the PepYMV of 127 Capsicum spp. accessions, aiming at identifying resistance sources useful in breeding programs. The experiment was carried out in a completely randomized design, with eight replications, in greenhouse conditions. Plants were protected with an insect-proof screen to avoid virus dissemination by aphids. Leaves of Nicotiana debneyi infected with the PepYMV were used as the inoculum source. Plants were inoculated with three to four fully expanded leaves. A second inoculation was done 48 hours later to avoid escapes. Only the youngest fully expanded leaf was inoculated. Two plants were inoculated only with buffer, as negative control. Symptoms were visually scored using a rating scale ranging from 1 (assymptomatic plants) to 5 (severe mosaic and leaf area reduction). Nine accessions were found to be resistant based on visual evaluation. Their resistance was confirmed by ELISA. Two resistance accessions belong to the species C. baccatum var. pendulum, while the seven other were C. chinense. No resistant accessions were identified in C. annuum var. annuum, C. annuum var. glabriusculum, and C. frutescens.

The tomato is a crop of great economical importance, however it is susceptible to a large number of pests and diseases, including viral disease for which the best control strategy is genetic resistance. The disease, caused by Pepper yellow mosaic virus (PepYMV) has become a recent problem. Consequently, the idea of this work was to screen 376 accessions of Lycopersicon sp. to find possible sources of resistance to PepYMV. Out of 355 accessions of L. esculentum inoculated with PepYMV, 52 did not express symptoms. However, the virus reached high concentration in the tissues as measured by indirect ELISA, and therefore they were not considered as safe sources of resistance. Among 21 accessions of wild Lycopersicon species, one of L. hirsutum was shown to be resistant, with no observed symptoms. A low concentration of the virus was detected as measured by indirect ELISA. This accession seems to be suitable for breeding programs aiming at incorporating resistance for this disease into commercial tomato cultivars.