Pepino mosaic virus, a first report of a virus infecting tomato in Syria

Abstract

This is the first report of Pepino mosaic virus (PepMV) occurring in tomato plants grown in plastic greenhouses in a Mediterranean city in Syria. One tomato fruit from sixty samples tested positive for this virus by DAS-ELISA. Biotest assay, RT-PCR, and sequencing confirmed the presence of PepMV. The highest sequence identity of the Syrian isolate was with the EU-tomato strains of PepMV.