Infectivity of Euphorbia leaf curl virus and interaction with Tomato yellow leaf curl China betasatellite

To investigate the infectivity of Euphorbia leaf curl virus (EuLCV), an infectious clone was constructed and tested by agroinoculation and whitefly inoculation. EuLCV infected Nicotiana benthamiana, N. glutinosa, Solanum lycopersicum, Petunia hybrida efficiently upon agroinoculation and induced leaf curling, vein swelling and stunting in these plants but no symptoms in N. tabacum. Co-inoculation of EuLCV with a betasatellite DNA from an unrelated begomovirus enhanced symptoms in N. benthamiana, N. glutinosa, N. tabacum, S. lycopersicum and P. hybrida plants but had no effect on the accumulation of EuLCV DNA. Euphorbia pulcherrima plants were only infectable by insect transmission from agro-infected P. hybrida as a source. This is the first report about a monopartite begomovirus that has been reintroduced into a plant of the genus Euphorbia.