In January 2021, unusual fruit and leaf symptoms were observed in several greenhouses cultivating tomatoes commercially in Riyadh Region, Saudi Arabia. Fruit symptoms showed irregular brown spots, deformation, and yellowing spots which render the fruits non-marketable, while the leaf symptoms included mottling, mosaic with dark green wrinkled and narrowing.
A total of 45 symptomatic leaf samples were collected and tested serologically against suspected important tomato viruses including tomato chlorosis virus, tomato spotted wilt virus, tomato yellow leaf curl virus, tomato chlorotic spot virus, tomato aspermy virus, tomato bushy stunt virus, tomato black ring virus, tomato ringspot virus, tomato mosaic virus, pepino mosaic virus, and ToBRFV, using Enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) test (LOEWE, Biochemica, Germany), according to the manufacturers' instructions. The obtained results showed that 84.4% (38/45) of symptomatic tomato samples were infected with at least one of the detected viruses.
The obtained results showed that 55.5% (25/45) of symptomatic tomato samples were found positive for ToBRFV. Three out of 25 samples (12%) were singly infected; however, 22 out of 45 (48.8%) had mixed infection between ToBRFV and with at least one of the tested viruses. A sample with a single infection of ToBRFV was mechanically inoculated into different host ranges including Chenopodium amaranticolor, C. quinoa, C. album, C. glaucum, Nicotiana glutinosa, N. benthamiana, N. tabacum, N. occidentalis, Gomphrena globosa, Datura stramonium, Solanum lycopersicum, S. nigrum, and petunia hybrida. Symptoms were observed weekly and the systemic presence of the ToBRFV was confirmed by RT-PCR and partial nucleotide sequence.
Read the complete research at www.researchgate.net.
Sabra, Ahmed & Al-Saleh, Mohammad & Al-Shahwan, Ibrahim & Amer, Mahmoud. (2021). First Report of Tomato Brown Rugose Fruit Virus Infecting Tomato Crop in Saudi Arabia.