Host range and symptomatology of Pepino mosaic virus strains occurring in Europe

• Published in: European journal of plant pathology Vol. 143; no. 1; pp. 43 - 56
• Main Authors: Blystad, Dag-Ragnar, van der Vlugt, René, Alfaro-Fernández, Ana, del Carmen Córdoba, María, Bese, Gábor, Hristova, Dimitrinka, Pospieszny, Henryk, Mehle, Nataša, Ravnikar, Maja, Tomassoli, Laura, Varveri, Christina, Nielsen, Steen Lykke
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Dordrecht Springer Netherlands 01.09.2015; Springer Nature B.V
• Subjects: Agriculture; alternative hosts; Biomedical and Life Sciences; Capsicum annuum; crops; Cultivars; Ecology; eggplants; Environmental conditions; environmental factors; Greenhouses; Host plants; host range; indicator species; industry; Life Sciences; Lycopersicon esculentum; Nicotiana; Nicotiana occidentalis; pathogenicity; Pepino mosaic virus; Plant diseases; Plant Pathology; Plant Sciences; potatoes; Potexvirus; Solanaceae; Solanum tuberosum; Strains; Test plants; Tomatoes; Viruses; Europe; Strains; Potexvirus; Host plants; Test plants
• ISSN: 0929-1873; 1573-8469
• DOI: 10.1007/s10658-015-0664-1

Pepino mosaic virus (PepMV) has caused great concern in the greenhouse tomato industry after it was found causing a new disease in tomato in 1999. The objective of this paper is to investigate alternative hosts and compare important biological characteristics of the three PepMV strains occurring in Europe when tested under different environmental conditions. To this end we compared the infectivity and symptom development of three, well characterized isolates belonging to three different PepMV strains, EU-tom, Ch2 and US1, by inoculating them on tomato, possible alternative host plants in the family Solanaceae and selected test plants. The inoculation experiments were done in 10 countries from south to north in Europe. The importance of alternative hosts among the solanaceous crops and the usefulness of test plants in the biological characterization of PepMV isolates are discussed. Our data for the three strains tested at 10 different European locations with both international and local cultivars showed that eggplant is an alternative host of PepMV. Sweet pepper is not an important host of PepMV, but potato can be infected when the right isolate is matched with a specific cultivar. Nicotiana occidentalis 37B is a useful indicator plant for PepMV studies, since it reacts with a different symptomatology to each one of the PepMV strains.