Molecular characterization of Egyptian isolates of tomato yellow leaf curl geminivirus
A joint American-Egyptian research project dealt with the charactization of four isolates of tomato yellow leaf curl geminivirus (EPPO A2 quarantine pest) from Egypt and their comparison with isolates of the virus from Italy, Israel and Thailand. To characterize the strains the polymerase chain reaction (PCR) technique was utilized. It was found that the isolates from four different regions of Egypt were closely related with each other as well as with the Israeli isolate (more than 96% identity). The isolates from Italy and Thailand did not show a strong relatedness with the Egyptian isolates (less than 80% identity). The authors assumed that this finding might have important implications on resistance breeding programmes within the Mediterranean region since Lycopersicon chilense shows resistance to the Israeli strains of the virus, and it is not known if this applies also to the European strains of tomato yellow leaf curl geminivirus.
Sources
Nakhla, M.K.; Mazyad, H.M.; Maxwell, D.P. (1993) Molecular characterization of four tomato yellow leaf curl virus isolates from Egypt and development of diagnostic methods.
Phytopathologia Mediterranea 32, 163-173.