April 28, 2006
From: ProMED-mail<promed@promedmail.org>
Source: British Society for Plant Pathology, New Disease Reports, Vol. 13 [edited] <http://www.bspp.org.uk/ndr/july2006/2006-25.asp>

A new begomovirus infecting pepper plants in Cuba
Y. Martinez Zubiaur*, Y. Muniz Martin and M. Quinones Pantoja
Plant Pathology Group, National Centre for Animal and Plant Health (CENSA). P.O. Box 10, San Jose De las lajas, La Habana, Cuba *<yamila@censa.edu.cu>
Accepted for publication 5 Apr 2006

Diseases caused by begomoviruses are a major threat to vegetable production for countries in the Caribbean and Central America. In 1996, an isolate of Tomato yellow leaf curl virus (TYLCV) was reported to be affecting tomato plants (_Lycopersicon esculentum_) throughout Cuba (Martinez et al., 1996). In 2002, the same virus was detected in pepper (_Capsicum annuum_) in Camaguey, Sancti Spiritus and Havana provinces and in bean (_Phaseolus vulgaris_) plants in Havana province (Martinez et al., 2002; Quinones et al., 2002).

During a survey in 2005, in the pepper production areas of eastern Cuban, about 70 percent of pepper plants growing at an Experimental Station in Holguin province, showed symptoms that differed from those previously described for TYLCV in pepper. Symptoms consisted of plant stunting and a severe leaf yellow mosaic with
crinkling and curling. Ten representative symptomatic plants were collected and leaf samples analyzed by transmission electron microscopy. Total nucleic acid was extracted and assayed by non-radioactive nucleic acid
hybridisation, using a TYLCV intergenic region probe under low stringency conditions (Quinones et al., 2002) and by polymerase chain reaction (PCR). All leaf samples showed the presence of  typical geminivirus particles, whereas none exhibited hybridisation signals. Using PCR with degenerate primers that specifically amplify the
coat protein region from begomoviruses (Wyatt & Brown, 1996), all samples produced amplicons of the expected size (576 bp). PCR amplicons from 3 samples were cloned in pGEM T-Easy vectors (Promega).

The clones were sequenced and BLAST analysis showed the highest identity (98 percent) within clones; between 93 percent and 94 percent identity with Cabbage leaf curl virus (U65529 and AF065815, respectively) and between 87 percent and 90 percent identity with Pepper yellow vein virus (AF 063139), Pepper golden mosaic virus (AY368336) and Texas pepper mosaic virus (AF077025). However there was only 68 percent identity with TYLCV (AJ223505). One of the sequences was deposited in GenBank (DQ207808) as representative of the 3 clones. This report shows the occurrence of a new begomovirus in pepper plants in Cuba.

Acknowledgement: This work was support by an INCO BETOCARIB project (PLICA4-2000-10328) and the Cuban Agriculture Biotechnology programs.

References

Martinez-Zubiaur Y, Zabalgogeazcoa I, de Blas C, Sanchez F, Peralta EL, Romero J, Ponz FM, 1996. Geminiviruses associated with diseased tomatoes in Cuba. Phytopathology 144, 277-279.

Martinez Y, Quinones M, Fonseca D, Potter J, Maxwell DP, 2002. First report of Tomato yellow leaf curl virus infecting bean (_Phaseolus vulgaris_) in Cuba. Plant Disease 86, 814.

Quinones M, Fonseca D, Acotto GP, Martinez Y, 2002. Viral infection associated with the presence of Begomoviruses in pepper plants in Cuba. Plant Disease 86, 73.

Wyatt SD, Brown JK, 1996. Detection of subgroup III geminivirus isolates in leaf extracts by degenerate primers and polymerase chain reaction. Phytopathology 86, 1288-1293.

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ProMED-mail
<promed@promedmail.org>

[The crop plant pepper, _Capsicum annuum_, develops yellow mosaic and leaf crumpling symptoms when infected by a begomovirus newly detected in Cuba. The samples were collected in 2005 from a single site at an Experimental Station in Holguin province. The begomovirus tomato yellow leaf curl virus is common in Cuba in tomato and pepper, but this new virus is not likely to be a strain of TYLC. When the sequence of the cDNA corresponding to the coat protein was compared to other begomoviruses the closest affinity was with cabbage leaf curl virus (CLCV). It remains to be seen if other regions of the genome share this close similarity with CLCV. CLCV causes disease in cabbage in Jamaica (see 2006 posting 20060310.0768) but there is no commentary in this article on how common CLCV is in Cuba on cabbage.

This is yet another report pointing out the diversity of begomoviruses and the frequent discovery of new viruses of the group. They are ssDNA viruses (family: _Geminiviridae_, genus: _Begomovirus_) which are transmitted by
whiteflies (_Bemisia tabaci_). They have a great capacity to form hybrids and therefore new viruses. Once introduced into an area they are difficult to control. There are approximately 100 previous postings on begomoviruses in ProMED-mail archives (search term: begomovirus). The posting included in ³see also:² are for begomoviruses of pepper, begomoviruses in Cuba and for cabbage leaf curl virus.

Maps:
Cuba:
<http://www.merriam-webster.com/cgi-bin/nytmaps.pl?cuba>
Holguin Province:
<http://www.cubamapa.com/province-map-holguin-map.htm>

Links:
<http://nfrec.ifas.ufl.edu/PolstonBegomo.pdf>
<http://ag.arizona.edu/PLS/faculty/brown.html>
<http://www.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/summary/286/5446/1835>
- Mod.JAD]


[see also in the archive:
Geminiviruses, vegetable crops - Jamaica 20060310.0768
2005
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Bell pepper leaf curl virus - Pakistan (Lahore) 20051022.3084
Tomato leaf curl New Delhi virus, chili - India 20050712.1984
2004
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Tomato yellow leaf curl virus, squash - Cuba 20040517.1323
Tomato leaf curl virus, chilli pepper - Pakistan 20040509.1255
2003
----
Cotton leaf curl, chili pepper - Pakistan 20030715.1745
Sida golden yellow vein virus - Cuba: first report 20031015.2594
Begomoviruses, chili pepper, tomato - Asia 20030221.0450
2002
----
Tomato yellow leaf curl virus, bean - Cuba 20020707.4682
Tomato yellow leaf curl begomovirus, pepper - Cuba 20020127.3412
2000
----
Texas pepper begomovirus 20000416.0546
Serrano golden mosaic begomovirus 20000413.0522
Pepper mild tigre begomovirus - Mexico, USA 20000405.0499
Pepper huasteco begomovirus - Mexico, USA 20000404.0494
Tomato & pepper begomoviruses - Mexico (Sonora) 20000126.0131]