Abstract

Tomato yellow leaf curl disease (TYLCD) is a major threat affecting tomato production in both tropical and subtropical areas worldwide. The disease is caused by the Tomato yellow leaf curl virus and other related viruses that belong to the genus Begomovirus of the family Geminiviridae, which are transmitted by the whitefly (Bemisia tabaci). Since mechanical transmission of the disease is difficult and impractical, an efficient and easy method is needed. In this study, an agrodrench inoculation method was utilized where the suspension of Agrobacterium, harbouring a plasmid with the DNA of the virus, is drenched into the soil near the roots. This method proved to be easy and can be used to overcome several problems associated with other inoculation methods. In this study, the effectiveness of the agrodrench as an inoculation method for TYLCV was found to be influenced by the virus strain, agrobacterium strain and concentration, plant age, stem-wounding and host plant species.The method was used successfully to infect tomato, cucumber, pepper and Nicotiana benthamiana plants with a mild strain of TYLCV. Several factors associated with the agrodrench inoculation method were tested and the infectivity of TYLCV increased with a stem wounding treatment at the crown area. However, this method was inefficient to inoculate small plants and resulted in low infection rate when compared to the leaf infiltration method.

Keywords

Agrobacterium tumefaciens, Begomovirus, inoculation, Solanum lycopersicum

Published in

Journal of Food, Agriculture & Environment
2014, Volume: 12, number: 2, pages: 680-687

SLU Authors

• Kvarnheden, Anders

  • Department of Plant Biology, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences
    

UKÄ Subject classification

Botany
Microbiology


Permanent link to this page (URI)

https://res.slu.se/id/publ/65939