Identification of Tomato mottle mosaic virus in historic seed accessions originating from France, the Netherlands and Spain, indicates a wider presence before its first description

Abstract

Tomato mottle mosaic virus (ToMMV) is a tobamovirus found in a Solanum lycopersicum sample collected in Mexico in 2009. To assess the possible presence of ToMMV in Europe, accessions from a historic seed collection were tested by real-time RT-PCR and Illumina sequencing. ToMMV was identified in historical seed accessions produced in France, the Netherlands and Spain. Three different near complete genome sequences were obtained, each corresponding to the country in which the seeds had been produced. Positive samples from France and Spain could be related to the same production location and year, respectively, while the identical genome sequences from the Netherlands were obtained from samples produced in different locations and years between 1981 and 2007. The latter could be due to the fact that the Dutch seed accessions had been repacked in the past at the same location and time as accessions with a relatively high virus load from 2007. This indicates that possibly only the seeds from 2007 originated from ToMMV-infected plants, while the detection of ToMMV in the older seed accessions resulted from cross contamination. This data shows that ToMMV has been around in Europe before its first description and is possibly more widespread than currently known.

A Reverse-Transcription Loop-Mediated Isothermal Amplification Technique to Detect Tomato Mottle Mosaic Virus, an Emerging Tobamovirus

“…ToMMV infection induces mosaic, mottle, narrowing, and crinkling symptoms on tomato plant leaves, as well as fruit necrosis [ 15 , 16 ], leading to stunted growth and reduced fruit yield. The virus was initially found in greenhouse-grown tomatoes in Mexico in 2013 [ 12 ], and subsequently detected in China [ 17 ], the USA [ 18 ], Israel [ 19 ], Spain [ 20 ], Brazil [ 21 ], Czechia [ 22 ], Mauritius [ 23 ], the Netherlands [ 24 ], and France [ 25 ]. Tomato ( Solanum lycopersicum L.) and pepper ( Capsicum annuum L.) [ 12 , 17 ] are the major hosts of ToMMV, and chickpea ( Cicer arietinum L.) [ 26 ], eggplant ( Solanum melongena L.) [ 27 ], and pea ( Pisum sativum L.) [ 28 ] have also been reported as natural hosts.…”

Findings of tobacco ringspot virus in ornamentals in the Netherlands from 1997 to 2020 indicate a need for evaluation of its EU-quarantine status

“…In 2023, 109 TRSV sequences, available from NCBI GenBank, were aligned with the primers and probe: 95% of the sequences had no or one mismatch(es) with the primers or probe (Figure S1) Three sequences with more than one mismatch were tested using synthetic DNA-fragments (Invitrogen) and were all detected, although with less sensitivity for the most deviating sequence (Table S1). Illumina sequencing was performed as described by Schoen et al (2023). To determine the optimal model to construct the phylogenetic trees, for each genome segment a model test was performed in CLC genomic workbench (Qiagen, Denmark), using default settings.…”