Archivio Journal of Plant Pathology

Abstract:

The potexvirus Pepino mosaic virus (PepMV) has recently been found infecting tomato in different European countries but little is known on the biodiversity of the different isolates or their relationships with the type strain from Peru. The experimental host range of an Italian isolate from tomato (PepMV-To) differed markedly from that of the isolate from pepino and to a less extent from that of a Spanish isolate from tomato. Among cultivated Solanaceae, eggplant but not pepper or potato were found to be susceptible to PepMV-To. The virus was detected by serology in tomato seeds but it was not seed transmissible to 50 seedlings; it was easily purified by a new procedure, and polyclonal antisera were produced. In tomato and other hosts the virus was efficiently detected by different ELISA procedures and by a quick field immunochromatographic system based on lateral flow, with 100% correlation between DAS ELISA and this new technique.