HOST-RANGE OF TOMATO MOTTLE VIRUS, A NEW GEMINIVIRUS INFECTING TOMATOIN FLORIDA

A geminivirus causing mottling, upward led curling, and stunting was o bserved infecting tomatoes (Lycopersicon esculentum Mill. var. esculen tum) throughout production areas of Florida since I989; and it has bee n named the tomato mottle virus (TMoV). The virus was inoculated by wh iteflies (Bemisia tabaci (Gennadius)) to 41 plant species representing eight families. Species of four genera became infected, three in the Solanaceae (Lycopersicon, Nicotiana, and Physalis) and one in the Faba ceae (Phaseolus). The infection in Phaseolus vulgaris L. was symptomle ss and was identified by nucleic acid spot hybridization with a full-l ength B component probe and by back inoculation to tomato by whiteflie s. TMoV resembled other tomato-infecting geminiviruses from the Wester n Hemisphere in its narrow host range, in which species of the Solanac eae were predominate, but differed in the type of symptoms produced in tomato and in the species of hosts which were infected. Transmission via tomato seed was not found in 3,000 seedlings examined.