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ARS Home » Southeast Area » Fort Pierce, Florida » U.S. Horticultural Research Laboratory » Subtropical Plant Pathology Research » Research » Publications at this Location » Publication #213011

Title: Tropical soda apple mosaic virus Identified in Solanum capsicoides in Florida

Author
item Adkins, Scott
item MCAVOY, GENE - UF COOPERATIVE EXT. SVC.
item Rosskopf, Erin

Submitted to: Plant Disease
Publication Type: Peer Reviewed Journal
Publication Acceptance Date: 6/18/2007
Publication Date: 8/10/2007
Citation: Adkins, S.T., Mcavoy, G., Rosskopf, E.N. 2007. Tropical soda apple mosaic virus Identified in Solanum capsicoides in Florida. Plant Disease. 91:1204

Interpretive Summary: This is the first report of Tropical soda apple mosaic virus (TSAMV) infection of any host other than tropical soda apple. It suggests that TSAMV may be more widely distributed in solanaceous weeds than previously reported. This report continues a cooperative research effort between ARS and University of Florida, and provides a timely account of TSAMV infection of red soda apple to growers, Extension personnel and state and Federal regulatory and research scientists.

Technical Abstract: Red soda apple (Solanum capsicoides All.), a member of the Solanaceae, is a weed originally from Brazil. It is a perennial in southern Florida and is characterized by abundant prickles on stems, petioles and leaves. Prickles on stems are more dense than on its larger noxious weed relative, tropical soda apple (Solanum viarum Dunal), and the mature red soda apple fruits are bright red in contrast to the yellow fruits of tropical soda apple. Virus-like foliar symptoms of light and dark green mosaic were observed on the leaves of a red soda apple in a Lee County cow pasture during a tropical soda apple survey in the fall of 2004. The appearance of necrotic local lesions following inoculation of Nicotiana tabacum cv. Xanthi nc with sap from the symptomatic red soda apple leaves suggested the presence of a tobamovirus. Tropical soda apple mosaic virus (TSAMV), a recently described tobamovirus isolated from tropical soda apple in Florida, was specifically identified using a double antibody sandwich-enzyme linked immunosorbent assay. An additional six similarly symptomatic red soda apple plants were later collected in the Devils Garden area of Hendry County. Inoculation of N. tabacum cv. Xanthi nc with sap from each of these symptomatic plants also resulted in necrotic local lesions. Sequence analysis of the TSAMV coat protein (CP) gene amplified from total RNA by reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) with a mixture of degenerate primers flanking the CP gene of Solanaceae-infecting tobamoviruses confirmed the presence of TSAMV in all plants from both locations. Nucleotide and deduced amino acid sequences of the 483 base pair CP gene were both 98-99% identical to the original TSAMV CP gene sequences in GenBank. Sequence analysis of the RT-PCR products also revealed the presence of Tomato mosaic virus in the plant from Lee County. To the best of our knowledge, this represents the first report of natural TSAMV infection of any host other than tropical soda apple and suggests that TSAMV may be more widely distributed in solanaceous weeds than initially reported.