Tomato Mosaic Virus Occurrence Infecting Cucurbits In Some Provinces of Iran

Tomato mosaic virus is one of the most damaging viruses infecting vegetable crops. This study was conducted to estimate the distribution of ToMV in some cucurbit plants including cucumber، squash and watermelon. Toward this aim، during the years 2008 to 2010 samples were taken from numbers of cucurbit cultivations of different provinces of Iran. Leaf samples were selected from symptomatic plants and tested with DAS-ELISA method. Samples with positive reaction with antisera in ELISA were further selected for subsequent assays. Bioassay was done using with the herbaceous host plants and mechanical inoculations. RT-PCR was done with the total RNA extracted from the leaf samples. Samples were amplified by semi-nested RT-PCR using with the universal tobamovirus primer and Tomato mosaic virus (ToMV) specific primer pairs. A desired DNA fragment with a size about 675 bp was amplified for ToMV infected plants. Results of the ELISA، RT-PCR tests and bioassay confirmed the presence of ToMV in different cucurbit crops as follow: cucumber and squash in Maragheh district، watermelon in Orumia district، cucumber in Zahedan and Roodan districts and squash in Varamin district. Results of this study indicated that cultivated cucrbits in Iran are infected with ToMV. It is necessary to consider the ToMV control management strategy in general control management scheme for cucurbit plants.