Prevalences of Tobamovirus Contamination in Seed Lots of Tomato and Capsicum

Abstract

Seed lots of tomato and capsicum (Solanum lycopersicon and Capsicum annuum, respectively) are required to be free of quarantine pests before their entry to Australia is permitted. Testing of samples from 118 larger seed lots in the period 2019–2021 revealed that 31 (26.3%) carried one or more of four Tobamovirus species, including tomato mottle mosaic virus (ToMMV), which is a quarantine pest for Australia. Testing of samples from a further 659 smaller seed lots showed that 123 (18.7%) carried a total of five Tobamovirus species, including ToMMV and tomato brown rugose fruit virus (ToBRFV), which is also a quarantine pest for Australia. Estimated prevalence of contamination by tobamoviruses ranged from 0.388% to 0.004% in contaminated larger seed lots. Analyses of these data allow us to estimate probabilities of detection of contamination under different regulatory settings.

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

“…Investigating the status of outbreak areas and host ranges will provide practical evidence for developing control strategies for ToMMV, and our RT-LAMP method is anticipated to contribute to this end. Seed-borne spread of ToMMV is becoming a concern under the increasing global seed trade and is mainly monitored using RT-PCR-based assays [ 54 ]. The proposed rapid, highly sensitive RT-LAMP detection method has the potential to improve the accuracy and efficiency of ToMMV quarantine measures.…”