Tomato yellow leaf curl virus (TYLCV) is one of the most well-known tomato-infecting begomoviruses and transmitted by Bemisia tabaci. Seed transmission has previously been reported for some RNA viruses, but TYLCV has not previously been described as a seed-borne virus. In 2013 and 2014, without whitefly-mediated transmission, TYLCV was detected in young tomato plants germinated from fallen fruits produced from TYLCV-infected tomato plants in the previous cultivation season. In addition, TYLCV-Israel (TYLCV-IL) was also detected in seeds and their seedlings of TYLCV-infected tomato plants that were infected by both viruliferous whitefly-mediated transmission and agro-inoculation. The seed infectivity was 20–100%, respectively, and the average transmission rate to seedlings was also 84.62% and 80.77%, respectively. TYLCV-tolerant tomatoes also produced TYLCV-infected seeds, but the amount of viral genome was less than seen in TYLCV-susceptible tomato plants. When tomato plants germinated from TYLCV-infected seeds, non-viruliferous whiteflies and healthy tomato plants were placed in an insect cage together, TYLCV was detected from whiteflies as well as receiver tomato plants six weeks later. Taken together, TYLCV-IL can be transmitted via seeds, and tomato plants germinated from TYLCV-infected seeds can be an inoculum source of TYLCV. This is the first report about TYLCV seed transmission in tomato.

No abstract

Multipartite viruses package their genomic segments independently and mainly infect plants; few target animals. Nanoviridae is a family of multipartite single-stranded DNA plant viruses that individually encapsidate single-stranded DNAs of approximately 1 kb and transmit them through aphids without replication in the aphid vectors, thereby causing important diseases of leguminous crops and banana. Significant findings regarding nanoviruses have recently been made on important features, such as their multicellular way of life, the transmission of distinct encapsidated genome segments through the vector body, evolutionary ambiguities, mode of infection, host range and geographical distribution. This review deals with all the above-mentioned features in view of recent advances with special emphasis on the emergence of new species and recognition of new host range of nanoviruses and aims to shed light on the evolutionary linkages, the potentially devastating impact on the world economy, and the future challenges imposed by nanoviruses.

Tomato yellow leaf curl virus (TYLCV), a member of the genus Begomovirus, has a single-stranded DNA genome. TYLCV can induce severe disease symptoms on tomato plants, but other hosts plants such as cucurbits and peppers are asymptomatic. A full-length DNA clone of a Korean TYLCV isolate was constructed by rolling-circle amplification from TYLCV-infected tomatoes in Korea. To assess relative susceptibility of sweet pepper varieties to TYLCV, 19 cultivars were inoculated with cloned TYLCV by agro-inoculation. All TYLCV-infected sweet peppers were asymptomatic, even though Southern hybridization and polymerase chain reaction analysis showed TYLCV genomic DNA accumulation in roots, stems, and newly produced shoots. Southern hybridization indicated that TYLCV replicated and moved systemically from agro-inoculated apical shoot tips to roots or newly produced shoots of sweet peppers. Whitefly-mediated inoculation experiments showed that TYLCV can be transmitted to tomatoes from TYLCV-infected sweet peppers. Taken together, these results indicate that sweet pepper can be a reservoir for TYLCV in nature.