FIRST REPORT OF POTATO VIRUS Y IN TREE TOMATO IN ECUADOR

Tree tomato (Solanum betaceum Caf.) is an important ed- ible fruit crop that belongs to the family Solanaceae and is native to South America. In Ecuador tree tomato is grown in an area of 5,964 ha with a production of 14,695 tonnes (Source: General System Coordination of National Informa- tion, MEGAP, 2012). In April 2015, commercial tree tomato fields in the Ambato, Huachi Chico, Montalvo, Pelileo, Tun- gurahua provinces of Ecuador showed yellow mosaic pattern and black necrotic spots on the leaves, stunted growth and brown spots on the fruits. Based on the symptomatology, the presence of Potato virus Y (PVY, family Potyviridae) was suspected in these plants. This was confirmed by triple- antibody sandwich (TAS)-ELISA with a specific antiserum (Agdia, USA), then by RT-PCR using potyvirus primers designed in the NIb gene (Zheng et al., 2008). The result- ing 350 bp amplicons were purified, sequenced (Macrogen, South Korea) and sequences were deposited in GenBank [accession Nos. KT581015 (Ambato), KT581016 (Huachi Chico), KT581017 (Montalvo), KT581018 (Pelileo)]. Sequence analysis (BioEdit v. 7.05) showed 91.2-99.6% and 97.7-100% identity with the NIb gene of other PVY isolates at the nucleotide and amino acid levels, respectively. Phylogenet- ic trees constructed using MEGA version 4.1 formed two clades with Ecuadorian isolates (KT581018 ad KT581017) closely related to PVY isolates (KC634008, HQ912869, AB711146, JF927763, KF850513, KJ946936, JQ969037, KJ159976, KC296433, AB461453, AB714135, AY884984) in clade 1, and two other Ecuadorian isolates (KT58101 and KT581016) belonging to clade 2. Based on our findings, the infected crop was eliminated to eradicate the infection. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first report of PVY on tree tomato in Ecuador.