Occurrence of Chilli veinal mottle virus in Solanum aethiopicum in Tanzania

Abstract

African eggplant, or garden egg (Solanum aethiopicum) is an important vegetable in most sub-Saharan African countries. Since June 1997, viral symptoms, including mosaic, vein clearing, and stunting, have been observed on several crops of African eggplant cv. Tengeru White at a number of sites in the Arusha region of northern Tanzania. Field inspections revealed disease incidence ranging from 50 to 90%. During the same period, high populations of the green peach aphid Myzus persicae were observed in affected crops of African eggplant. These aphids were also found to reproduce in African eggplants. Flexuous, rodshaped virus-like particles, approximately 750 nm long and 12 nm wide, were found in electron microscope leaf dips from field samples of naturally affected African eggplants. The particle size suggested a species of Potyviridae. Thus, 20 field-infected samples of S. aethiopicum (randomly collected from four farms) were assayed in double antibody sandwich enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (DAS-ELISA) for the presence of Potato virus Y (PVY) and Pepper veinal mottle virus (PVMV), known to infect tomato and other solanaceous crops in the region (2). However, all samples gave negative results. Further DAS-ELISA were performed with the same extracts from naturally infected plants of S. aethiopicum with antisera directed against Tobacco etch virus, Tobacco vein mottling virus, Pepper mottle virus, and Chilli veinal mottle virus (ChiVMV). All 20 samples were positive only for ChiVMV. ChiVMV, a single-stranded RNA virus transmitted in a nonpersistent manner by several aphid species, is one of the most important viruses of pepper in Asia (1). To confirm DAS-ELISA results, an isolate of ChiVMV from African eggplant was transmitted by mechanical inoculations, resulting in disease on tobacco (Nicotiana tobacco cv. Xanthi nc), pepper (Capsicum annuum cv. Yolo Wonder), tomato (Lycopersicon esculentum cv. Tengeru 97), and African eggplant (S. aethiopicum cv. Tengeru White). Extracts from the inoculated plants tested positive for the presence of ChiVMV in DAS-ELISA. This mechanically transmitted isolate did not infect melon (Cucumis melo), cucumber (C. sativus), or cowpea (Vigna unguiculata), which are nonhosts of ChiVMV. To our knowledge, this is the first report of the natural occurrence of ChiVMV in African eggplant. References: (1) S. K. Green et al. PETRIA 9:332, 1999. (2) R. Nono-Womdim et al. J. S. Afr. Soc. Hort. Sci. 6:41–44, 1996.

Molecular characterization of the CP gene and 3′UTR of Chilli veinal mottle virus from South and Southeast Asia

“…The related region is exposed on the surface of the virus particle and is the major virus‐specific epitope of potyviruses (Shukla & Ward, 1989; Urcuqui‐Inchima et al ., 2001). Because of the serological cross reaction, the recently detected ChiVMV in Tanzania by DAS‐ELISA (Nono‐Womdim et al ., 2001) should be confirmed by the virus sequence identification.…”

“…The virus is widely distributed in Asia, including China, India, Indonesia, Korea, Malaysia, the Philippines, Taiwan, and Thailand (Green & Kim, 1991; Siriwong et al ., 1995; Ravi et al ., 1997; Wang et al ., 2006). Recently, ChiVMV was also detected outside Asia, in Tanzania, by double antibody sandwich enzyme‐linked immunosorbent assay (DAS‐ELISA) (Nono‐Womdim et al ., 2001).…”

Resistance and Phenotypic Character of Chili M2 Mutant Lines Against Chilli Veinal Mottle Virus

“…Rendahnya produktivitas cabai nasional disebabkan oleh berbagai serangan hama dan penyakit, salah satunya adalah infeksi virus chilli veinal mottle virus (ChiVMV) yang dikenal sebagai virus belang (Womdim et al, 2001). Penyakit ini menyerang tanaman cabai sejak awal pertumbuhan hingga stadia panen sehingga sangat berpengaruh terhadap produktivitas cabai.…”

The complete genomic sequence of Tobacco vein banding mosaic virus and its similarities with other potyviruses

“…The conserved amino acids FDSS at position 2,546-2,549 of the polyprotein was located 263 aa upstream of the putative NIb/CP cleavage site [33]. The conserved (S/ T)G-(X) 3 -T(X) 3 -N(S/T)(X) [18][19][20][21][22][23][24][25][26][27][28][29][30][31][32][33][34][35][36][37] GDD that is necessary for RNA polymerase activity and NTP binding began at position 2,604. In CP, the DAG motif that interacts with PTK of HC-Pro to regulate potyviruses transmission by aphids [34] was located at position 2,815-2,817.…”

“…Phylogenetic analysis revealed that TVBMV-YND was most closely related to ChiVMV, a virus reported in Asia and Africa and which mainly infects solanaceous plants [35,36] (Fig. 2).…”