0000000000401102
AUTHOR
Luis C. Mejía
Begomoviruses Infecting Tomato Crops in Panama
The key regions in Panama involved in open field- and greenhouse-grown commercial tomato production, including the Chiriquí, Veraguas, Herrera, Los Santos, Coclé and Panama Oeste provinces, were surveyed for the incidence and distribution of begomoviruses in the growing seasons of 2011 and 2012. The surveys took place in 14 of the 51 districts of the above-mentioned provinces and comprised all relevant tomato production areas of the provinces. A total of 28 tomato plots were surveyed. The exact location of each plot was geo-referenced using a hand-held Global Positioning System unit. In total, 319 individual tomato plants (181 in 2011 and 138 in 2012) were sampled. Plants displayed diverse …
First report of Tomato leaf curl Sinaloa virus infecting tomato crops in Panama
In April 2011 and September 2012, virus-like symptoms were observed in open field- and greenhouse-grown tomato crops (Solanum lycopersicum) in Chiriquí, the westernmost province of Panama. Samples from symptom-bearing plants (127 in all) were collected and tested for the presence of begomoviruses by polymerase chain reaction (PCR) assays with sets of degenerated primers designed to amplify parts of the DNA-A and DNA-B components (Rojas et al., 1993; Table 1). Products of the expected sizes, obtained with both DNA-A- and DNA-B-specific primers for 49 samples, suggested infection with New World bipartite begomoviruses. This corresponds to an incidence of 26% (8 plants) in open field, and 43% …