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Evaluation of commercial tomato genotypes for their resistance to begomoviruses

Abstract:

One of the strategies to control the incidence of and damage by begomoviruses in tomato (Solanum lycopersicum L.) is the use of resistant genotypes. In this work, the commercial tomato genotypes Rio Grande (CRG), HA-3228 (Helena) and HA-3229 (Cecile) were evaluated for the reaction to two begomoviruses present in Venezuela, the Tomato Venezuela virus (ToVEV) and the exotic Tomato yellow leaf curl virus (TYLCV), both transmitted by the whitefly Bemisia tabaci. Only the inoculated CRG genotype showed symptoms of TYLCV at 10.0 ±1.2 days (100% of symptomatic plants). However, TYLCV was detected in the three tomato genotypes tested by PCR. ToVEV-inoculated test plants showed symptoms at 7.8 ±2.3 (100%), 11.8 ±2.2 (56.7%) and 9.5 ±1.1 days (65.7%) in he case of the genotypes CRG, Helena and Cecile, respectively. TYLCV resistant cultivars were susceptible to ToVEV, a native begomovirus widely distributed in Venezuela. Thus, every introduced commercial tomato genotype must be evaluated for its resistance to the local begomoviruses present in Venezuela, regardless of their resistance to other begomoviruses, particularly viruses introduced from the Old World.