Identification of Tomato yellow leaf curl virus, Pepper huasteco yellow vein virus and Pepper golden mosaic virus associated with pepper diseases in northern Mexico

AbstractNew diseases in pepper plantations were discovered in La Comarca Lagunera (CL) region in September 2014, the severity of which increased by October 2016. Pepper plants exhibited mild and severe yellow leaf mosaic, deformation, stunting and chlorotic leaves. In addition, whiteflies were observed on symptomatic plants, suggesting a possible begomovirus aetiology. In this study, naturally infected pepper plants were collected during three consecutive years to identify the potential begomovirus present in pepper in CL. PCR detection using degenerate and specific primers indicated that 47 out of 49 pepper plants were infected by begomoviruses mainly in mixed infection. The complete begomovirus genomes were isolated from a representative symptomatic pepper plant and two clones for each begomovirus were fully sequenced for the corresponding year of collection (2014 to 2016). Phylogenetic analysis of complete genomes of CL begomovirus pepper isolates indicated a close homology with Tomato yellow leaf curl...