First Report of Tomato infectious chlorosis virus on Tomato in Bulgaria

Virus-like chlorotic symptoms were observed on tomato plants, cv. Velocity, grown in a greenhouse, region of Plovdiv. Samples collected from the leaves with interveinal yellowing and with initial interveinal chlorosis were tested for virus presence. Only the samples collected from the upper leaves with slight interveinal chlorosis were positive for Tomato infectious chlorosis virus (TICV) in indirect ELISA. Further, RT-PCR analysis with specific primers for Tomato chlorosis virus (ToCV) heat shock protein 70, for TICV heat shock protein 70 and for TICV minor capsid protein was positive for TICV in all tested samples. No signals were obtained with primers for ToCV. Phylogenetic analysis showed that the Bulgarian sequence of Hsp70 and a sequence of Greek isolate clustered together having the highest resampling score. Regarding CPm, the Bulgarian isolate was more relevant to the French isolate. The obtained results from phylogenetic analysis supported the idea of a close relationship between the Bulgarian and Greek isolates.