Characterization of Tomato spotted wilt virus from Paprika in Korea

A Tomato spotted wilt virus (TSWV-KP) was isolated from Paprika (Capsicum annuum var. grossum) showing necrosis spot on the leaves and malformation of the fruit in Yesan, Korea. The virus infected Chenopodium amaranticolor, C. quinoa, Petunia hybrida, Nicotiana glutinosa, Gomphrena globosa, and Physalis floridana. Ten plants including tomato were observed to have systemic TWSV-KP infection. The virus produced necrosis or necrotic ring spots on the inoculated leaves and mosaic, vein necrosis or death on the upper leaves of Datura stramonium, N. clevarandii, N. rustica, and N. tabacum cvs. Thin sections of the infected leaf tissue contained spherical to oval particles, a characteristic of a Tospovirus. The virion contained three molecules of genomic RNAs, which were approximately 9.0, 4.9 and 3.0 kb. The nucleocapsid (N) protein of the purified virion migrated as a single band with molecular weight of about 29 kDa in SDS-PAGE. The N gene of TSWVKP showed 96.5-97.2% and 97.7-98.5% identities to the three different TSWV isolates of Genbank Database at the nucleotide and amino acid, respectively.