Varieties of Calibrachoa , a genus of plant with genus Petunia - comparable bloom in the Solanaceae kinfolk originating from South America , are becoming progressively popular as bedding and balcony plant worldwide . In fall 2018 , chlorotic spots and vein greensickness were observed on several plant in the greenhouse of a nursery in North - Rhine Westphalia , Germany ( Fig . 1 ) where only calibrachoa is cultivated . From the first balmy symptom , a stern disease developed with mortification of leaves and wilting of total shoot ( Fig . 2 ) . Almost all plants in the nursery ( c. 2000 m² ) became infect rapidly moderate to the entire loss of the crop .
Left : Calibrachoa plant with initial necrosis of whole shoots ; right : greensick spots observed on calibrachoa leave .
Investigations by electron microscopy showed the presence of gat - determine computer virus - comparable subatomic particle ( Fig . 3 ) indicative of tobamoviruses . This was confirmed by RT - PCR in sample distribution from twelve randomly gather up plant using a generic primer pair for the detection of tobamoviruses ( Menzel et al . , 2019 ) . Two PCR product were sequenced directly in the forward and invert commission ( HZI , Braunschweig ) reveal 100 % chronological succession identity . Sequence compare using blastn record 98.7 % nucleotide sequence individuality to Bell white pepper mottle computer virus ( BPeMV , genus Tobamovirus ; GenBank Accession No . NC_009642 ) and 75.8 % identity to Tomato mottle mosaic virus ( KX898034 ) . BPeMV was first identify in the 1960 ’s as an unusual striving of Tobacco mosaic virus infect pepper in Argentina ( Garcia et al . , 1968 ) . Wetter et al . ( 1987 ) later characterise it as a discrete virus species that led to lethal infection in vaccinate Petunia hybrids . The complete genome chronological sequence for BPeMV reported by Rhie et al . in 2007 confirm this status .
The calibrachoa isolate of BPeMV showed a strong serological chemical reaction in ELISA using a BPeMV - specific antibody enhance against an eggplant isolate of this virus ( DSMZ AS-0244 ) . In Europe , its occurrence is document only once from the Netherlands in 1980 ( Tobias et al . , 1982 ) . The pathway of unveiling of this obviously rarely occurring virus into the vegetatively propagated calibrachoa plants is so far unknown . This is the first evidence of the occurrent of BPeMV in Germany , and the first cogent evidence that it is infectious in an cosmetic plant . Due to the economic importance of the cosmetic host Calibrachoa , and the fast and fatal progression of the disease , the occurrent of similar symptom in these plant cultures demands careful monitoring and early diagnosis . The BPeMV isolate from calibrachoa ( MK770674 ) was deposited as PV-1239 in the DSMZ Plant Virus Collection .
author : New Disease Report
