Identification of whitefly transmitted tomato yellow leaf curl geminivirus from Iran and a survey of its distribution with molecular probes

A virus causing a disease of tomato, prevalent in the southern provinces of Iran, with symptoms of leaf‐curling, stunting, reduction of leaf size, leaf corrugation, shortening of internodes and severe reduction in fruit yield, was shown to be transmissible to healthy tomato plants by grafting and by whiteflies ( Bemisia tabaci ), but not by sap inoculation. Geminivirus DNA was detected in extracts of diseased tomato plants by dot‐blot hybridization assays using as probes full‐length cloned DNA of Australian, Italian (Sardinian) or Jordanian strains of tomato yellow leaf curl virus (TYLCV). Geminivirus coat protein was detected in whitefly inoculated plants by dot immunobinding assay using polyclonal antibody raised against Jordanian TYLCV. A limited survey using the dot‐blot hybridization assay for virus detection indicated the presence of the virus in tomato‐growing provinces of southern but not northern Iran. Whitefly transmission experiments to tomato under controlled greenhouse conditions showed that some isolates of TYLCV‐like geminiviruses from different parts of Iran differ in symptomatology.