Detection of a tospovirus – infecting tomato (Solanu m lycopersicon)

Tomato necrosis is a devastating disease; caused by a tospovirus belonging to the family Bunyaviridae. The bioassay of necrosis affected tomato samples produced chlorotic lesions on cowpea cv. C-152 and chlorotic cum necrotic lesions on Chenopodium amaranticolar. Symptomatic parts of the plant used for assay showed positive reaction with the Groundnut bud necrosis virus (GBNV) polyclonal antiserum both in direct antigen coating enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay and dot immunobinding assay indicating the association of tospovirus serologically related to GBNV. The virus was detected in all parts of the infected plant except secondary roots and the highest virus titer was found in floral parts. The nucleocapsid protein gene was amplified from leaf tissues of necrosis affected plants using groundnut bud necrosis virus specific primers. The amplifications were specific and reproducible, confirming the association of GBNV with necrosis tomato affected samples. The field screening revealed that Alcobasa-V and PKM-1 were resistant to GBNV/tomato Tospovirus.