Tomato mottle mosaic virus intercepted by Australian biosecurity in Capsicum annuum seed

Abstract

The Tobamovirus, Tomato mottle mosaic virus (ToMMV), was first reported in Mexico in 2013. The virus is thought to pose a serious risk to capsicum (Capsicum annuum) and tomato (Solanum lycopersicum) crops as it is may break resistance. In May 2019 a shipment of imported capsicum seeds was submitted for testing on-shore and using a one-step RT-PCR which detects Solanaceous tobamoviruses, an amplicon of 811 base pairs (bp) was detected and direct sequencing of this amplicon indicated that it had 98% - 99% nucleotide (nt) identity to the same region in ToMMV isolates. A cDNA library was generated using the Illumina TruSeq Stranded Total RNA and sequenced using Illumina HiSeq 3000 technology, bioinformatic analysis confirmed the arrangement of a 6398 nt genome which was 98% - 99% nt identity with the type strain of ToMMV. This is the first report of ToMMV in Capsicum annuum seed.