Identification of wild hosts of tomato yellow leaf curl virus in South-Eastern Iran

Abstract

In this research, to identify natural wild hosts of TYLCV, 44 symptomatic samples were collected in or around harvested tomato fields in south-eastern Iran and tested for the TYLCV infection by PCR. Among four PCR-positive plant species, full-length genome of TYLCV was amplified by rolling circle amplification (RCA) method only from a ground cherry (Physalis divaricata L., Solanaceae) sample. Cloning and full-length genome sequencing of a ground cherry isolate (G4) showed that it comprises 2756 nucleotides (nts) in length and shares 87.7%–95.2% nt sequence identities with TYLCV isolates reported from Iran, Oman and Pakistan. The G4 isolate of TYLCV was successfully transmitted to tomato plants and the original host (P. divaricata) via agroinoculation and showed typical symptoms. According to the results of this research, four symptomatic weed species appear to be alternative hosts of TYLCV and play the role of the primary inoculum for the viral infection.

Keywords:

• Tomato yellow leaf curl virus
• rolling circle amplification
• wild hosts
• Physalis divaricata L.
• Ammi majus L.
• Hibiscus trionum L.

Acknowledgement

The authors thank Dr. K. Izadpanah (Shiraz University) for critically reading and correcting the manuscript.

Disclosure statement

The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.

Ethical approval

This article does not contain any studies with human participants or animals performed by any of the authors.

ORCID

Jahangir Heydarnejad: http://orcid.org/0000-0002-9229-3001

Additional information

Funding

This study was supported by a grant (SBU1393-370319) from Shahid Bahonar University of Kerman, Kerman, Iran.