Biological, serological and molecular detection of tomato mosaic virus infecting pepper plants from Turkey

Abstract

This study was carried out to detect the presence Tomato mosaic virus (ToMV) by biological, serologic and molecular methods in the pepper production areas in Burdur and Denizli provinces. Symptoms related with virus infections on the pepper plants were observed during the surveys. Mechanical inoculation studies, DAS-ELISA (Double-antibody sandwich enzyme linked immunosorbent assay) tests, IC-RT-PCR (Immunocapture Reverse transcription polimerase chain reaction) studies were carried out during the work carried out to define the virus. The plants collected from the field that were suspicious with regards to being infected with the virus were first tested by the ELISA method. It was determined that 10 of the 209 tested samples were infected with ToMV. The samples that gave positive results during ELISA tests were used in the mechanical inoculation studies. Symptoms were observed in the indicator plants within a period of 7-10 days. 20 plant samples that gave negative ToMV values in the ELISA tests but had absorbance values close to positive along with the 10 samples that were tested as positive in the DAS-ELISA were used in the IC-RT- PCR method. All of the 30 samples produced expected amplification size of band with 318 bp as observed on agarose gel electrophoresis.