Authors: Fernanda Rausch Fernandes Leonardo Cunha de Albuquerque Leonardo de Britto Giordano Leonardo Silva Boiteux Antonio Carlos de Ávila Alice Kazuko InoueNagata
Publish Date: 2008/01/04
Volume: 36, Issue: 1, Pages: 251-258
Abstract
Information on the distribution and prevalence of the economically destructive Begomovirus species and recombinant forms infecting freshmarket and processing tomato crops in Brazil is crucial in guiding breeding programs and also to understand the evolutionary mechanisms associated with the upsurge of so many species and quasispecies comprising this unique disease complex An extensive survey was carried out over 3 years between 2002 and 2004 aiming to study the diversity of begomoviruses in tomato plants predominantly collected in central Brazil Polymerase chain reaction PCR with degenerated primers was used to detect the begomoviruses in tomato leaf samples showing viruslike symptoms in commercial fields Seven hundred and seventeen out of 2295 samples were found to be PCR positive for a begomovirus infection High quality sequences were obtained from a fragment encompassing the 5′ region of the coat protein CP gene and a segment of the intergenic region for 295 isolates from distinct geographic regions Comparison analyses with those available in public databases enabled preliminary classification of the isolates into four previously described and/or proposed species Tomato severe rugose virus 61 Tomato golden vein virus 298 Tomato mottle leaf curl virus 71 Tomato yellow vein streak virus 07 and two putative new species 14 of isolates Within the prevailing species we noted a relatively low degree of diversity possibly indicating the existence of recent population founder effects and/or recent selective sweepsWe are grateful to Élcio Vieira da Silva in Memorian for his technical assistance and Darren Patrick Martin and Arvind Varsani for helpful discussion and critically reading the manuscript This study was sponsored by Embrapa CNPq Unilever Bestfoods Brasil and IFS Sweden
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