New Crop Virus Plagues India

Matt Hopkins Posted by Matt Hopkins|19 May 2009

P. Kumari, B. Chattopadhyay, A. K. Singh, and S. Chakraborty at the School of Life Sciences, Jawaharlal Nehru University in New Delhi, India, have discovered a new virus similar to the tomato leaf curl Laos virus (ToLCD). Similar to ToLCD, the diseased plants show mottling, leaf distortion, crinkling, and stunting.

 

Begomovirus infects plants such as tomatoes, beans, squash, cassava, and cotton, and is transmitted rapidly and efficiently through a feeder insect vector. The new virus, on the basis of species demarcation criteria of 89% of DNA-A sequence identity, is considered a new begomovirus species and named Tomato leaf curl Patna virus (ToLCPaV), says APS Journals. Since the isolated DNA-β satellite shares less than 78% identity, it is considered a new species of betasatellite and the name, tomato leaf curl Patna betasatellite (ToLCPaB) is proposed. These results show that severe ToLCD in Patna is caused by a newly identified species of begomovirus and betasatellite.

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