The Timescale of Emergence and Spread of Turnip Mosaic Potyvirus

Plant viruses have important global impacts on crops, and identifying their centre and date of emergence is important for planning control measures. Turnip mosaic virus (TuMV) is a member of the genus Potyvirus in the family Potyviridae and is a major worldwide pathogen of brassica crops. For two decades, we have collected TuMV isolates, mostly from brassicas, in Turkey and neighbouring countries. This region is thought to be the centre of emergence of this virus. We determined the genomic sequences of 179 of these isolates and used these to estimate the timescale of the spread of this virus. Our Bayesian coalescent analyses used synonymous sites from a total of 417 novel and published whole-genome sequences. We conclude that TuMV probably originated from a virus of wild orchids in Germany and, while adapting to wild and domestic brassicas, spread via Southern Europe to Asia Minor no more than 700 years ago. The population of basal-B group TuMVs in Asia Minor is older than all other populations of this virus, including a newly discovered population in Iran. The timescale of the spread of TuMV correlates well with the establishment of agriculture in these countries.This work was in part funded by Saga University and supported by JSPS KAKENHI Grant numbers 18405022, 24405026 and 16K14862 and Grant-in-Aid for JSPS Research Fellow Grant number 16J04390

Natural Occurrence of Tomato leaf curl New Delhi virus in Iranian Cucurbit Crops

The main areas for field-grown vegetable production in Iran were surveyed during the years of 2012–2014 to determine the occurrence of begomoviruses infecting these crops. A total of 787 leaf samples were collected from vegetables and some other host plants showing virus-like symptoms and tested by an enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) using polyclonal antibodies produced against Tomato yellow leaf curl virus (TYLCV). According to the ELISA results, 81 samples (10.3%) positively reacted with the virus antibodies. Begomovirus infections were confirmed by polymerase chain reaction (PCR) using previously described TYLCV-specific primer pair TYLCV-Sar/TYLCV-Isr or universal primer pair Begomo-F/Begomo-R. The PCR tests using the primer pair TYLCV-Sar/TYLCV-Isr resulted in the amplification of the expected fragments of ca. 0.67-kb in size for ELISA-positive samples tested from alfalfa, pepper, spinach and tomato plants, confirming the presence of TYLCV. For one melon sample, having a week reaction in ELISA and no reaction in PCR using TYLCV-specific primers, the PCR reaction using the primer pair Begomo-F/Begomo-R resulted in the amplification fragments of the expected size of ca. 2.8 kb. The nucleotide sequences of the DNA amplicons derived from the isolate, Kz-Me198, were determined and compared with other sequences available in GenBank. BLASTN analysis confirmed the begomovirus infection of the sample and showed 99% identities with Tomato leaf curl New Delhi virus (ToLCNDV); phylogenetic analysis supported the results of the database searches. This study reports the natural occurrence of TYLCV in different hosts in Iran. Our results also reveal the emergence of ToLCNDV in Iranian cucurbit crops