First Report of Pepino Mosaic Virus on Tomato

Abstract

Early in 1999 a new viral disease occurred in protected tomato (Lycopersicon esculentum) crops in the Netherlands. Infected plants showed yellow leaf spots and mosaic. Transmission electron microscopic analysis revealed particles typical of potexviruses. Only three potexviruses have been reported to infect solanaceous crops: Pepino mosaic virus (PepMV), Potato aucuba mosaic virus (PAMV), and Potato virus X (PVX). Inoculation of test plants and serological tests showed that the new virus clearly differed from PAMV and PVX. Immuno-electron microscopy with antiserum to PepMV (1), the original PepMV isolate, and the virus from tomato showed decoration titers of 1:800 (homologous) and 1:400, respectively. Neither virus reacted with antiserum to PVX, nor did PVX react with antiserum to PepMV. Results of host plant analysis with 17 plant species mostly resembled those expected for PepMV. Nucleotide sequence alignment of DNA fragments obtained by reverse-transcriptase polymerase chain reaction with a specific primer set for potexviruses, directed against the RNA polymerase region, showed 93% identity between PepMV and the virus from tomato, while homologies with PVX, PAMV, and other potexviruses were <60%. Results indicate that the potexvirus in tomato is PepMV. PepMV was first found in pepino (Solanum muricatum) in Peru in 1974 and described by Jones et al. in 1980 (1). This is the first report of a natural infection of tomato by PepMV. Reference: (1) R. Jones et al. Ann. Appl. Biol. 94:61, 1980.

Epidemiología y variabilidad patogénica del virus del mosaico del pepino dulce (Pepino mosaic virus). Nuevas enfermedades asociadas a su presencia (torrao o cribado)

“…El estudio del comportamiento biológico del virus demostró la capacidad de éste de infectar diferentes especies de la familia Solanaceae, entre las que se encontraba el tomate, que a pesar de resultar afectado sistémicamente por el PepMV no manifestaba síntomas de ningún tipo (Jones et al, 1980). No fue hasta veinticinco años después, a principios de 1999, cuando se detectó por primera vez una infección natural en tomate, identificándose en plantas que mostraban síntomas de mosaico y manchas amarillas aisladas en invernaderos de los Países Bajos (van der Vlugt et al, 2000). En ese mismo año, se encontraron también tomates afectados por el virus en Reino Unido (Wright y Mumford, 1999) y en Alemania (Leserman et al, 2000).…”

“…En cambio, las plantas de tomate inoculadas mecánicamente con dicho aislado resultan asintomáticas (Jones et al, 1980). Los aislados del virus descritos posteriormente afectando a tomate producen una sintomatología muy variada en las plantas infectadas (van der Vlugt et al, 2000;Wright y Muford, 1999;Jordá et al, 2000a (Spence et al, 2006).…”

“…PepMV was reported infecting tomato crops (Solanum lycopersicon L.) in the Netherlands (van der Vlugt et al, 2000). Since then, PepMV has spread rapidly through the main tomato production areas worldwide, where it produces significant economic losses.…”

“…In this sense, the incorporation of routine detection techniques that permits not only to detect the virus but also identifies the corresponding isolates of PepMV is desirable. Different approaches have been used to detect and identify the virus: immunosorbent electronic microscopy (ISEM) (van der Vlugt et al, 2000), enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) (Jordá et al, 2001a) and different molecular methods including reverse transcriptasepolymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) (Mumford and Metcalfe, 2001;van der Vlugt et al, 2000) or one-step immunocapture real-time TaqMan RT-PCR assay designed to use two primers targeting a conserved region of the TGB2 gene plus a single TaqMan TM probe that covered all strains of PepMV .…”

“…in Peru (Jones et al, 1980). Since the first report of PepMV infecting tomato crops (Solanum lycopersicum L.) in 1999 (van der Vlugt et al, 2000), it has spread through the main tomato production areas worldwide.…”