Tobacco: A New Natural Host of Tomato chlorosis virus in Spain

In March 2013, symptoms of mild leaf curling, mosaic, and interveinal yellowing were observed in tobacco (Nicotiana tabacum) plants grown in a row surrounding the exterior of a greenhouse containing a tomato crop in Guia de Isora, Tenerife (Canary Islands, Spain). The tobacco plants were found lightly infested by the whitefly (Hemiptera: Aleyrodidae) Bemisia tabaci. The greenhouses in this area are devoted to the commercial production of tomato. The farmers grow some tobacco plants inside and outside of them as a reservoir of parasitoids and depredators of B. tabaci. This insect is the natural vector of the main viruses severely affecting tomato in the Canary Islands, the begomovirus Tomato yellow leaf curl virus and the crinivirus Tomato chlorosis virus (ToCV). ToCV was detected in Spain in 1997 (2) and has become established in most of the coastal provinces of eastern and southern continental Spain and in the Canary Islands. Approximately 50% of the tomato plants grown inside the greenhouse close to the...