Studies on Tomato yellow leaf curl viruses in some Mediterranean countries
Accumulation of molecular data has led scientists to divide Tomato yellow leaf curl begomovirus (EPPO A2 quarantine list) into several species. In a proposal for naming geminiviruses, Fauquet et al. (2000) proposed 8 different species: including Tomato yellow leaf curl gegomovirus - Sardinia (TYLCV-Sar, first reported in Sardinia) and Tomato yellow leaf curl begomovirus - Israel (TYLCV-Is, first reported in Israel). Studies were carried out to identify the species of Tomato yellow leaf curl viruses present in Europe (Accotto et al., 2000). Tomato leaves from plants showing symptoms were collected from Italy, Spain and Portugal from 1991 to 1998. Several identification methods were tested and it was found that for typing purposes, RFLP was the most suitable. All European samples tested belonged to one of the two species. TYLCV-Sar was identified on samples from: Italy (Sardegna, Sicilia)
and Spain. TYLCV-Is was identified on samples from Portugal and Spain (in some Spanish samples both viruses were present).
Sources
Accotto, G.P.; Navas-Castillo, J.; Noris, E.; Moriones, E.; Louro, D. (2000) Typing of tomato yellow leaf curl viruses in Europe.
European Journal of Plant Pathology, 106(2), 179-186.
Fauquet, C.M.; Maxwell, D.P.; Gronenborn, B.; Stanley, J. (2000) Revised proposal for naming geminiviruses.
Archives of virology, 145(8), 1743-1761.
Also available on INTERNET
http://iltab.danforthcenter.org/naming/howtoname.html