Tomato necrotic ring virus (TNRV), a recently described tospovirus species infecting tomato and pepper in Thailand

Two tospovirus isolates collected from tomato and bell pepper in Thailand were studied. The isolates induced severe necrotic mottling and/or necrotic spots and rings on the leaves and fruits of the respective plants as confirmed by back-inoculation. A polyclonal antiserum raised against its nucleocapsid (N) protein reacted only with an extract from plants infected with the homologous virus. Analysis of the nucleocapsid (N) gene sequence and its deduced amino acid sequence (Mw ∼31 kDa) showed 99% amino acid sequence homology with that of Tomato necrotic ring virus (TNRV). The nucleotide sequence of the 5΄ untranslated region and intergenic region flanking the N gene revealed typical features of the S RNA segment of tospoviruses. Mechanical inoculation of the virus on some plant species showed that most of the tested solanaceous species were susceptible to this virus. The biological, serological and molecular data presented here indicate that both isolates are identical to TNRV, a recently described tospovirus species in Thailand.