SEROLOGICAL AND MOLECULAR DETECTION OF VIRUS INFECTIONS OF TOMATO (Lycopersicum esculentum Mill.) PLANTS IN AZERBAIJAN

Abstract

The study was conducted to determine the prevalence of virus diseases in two important tomato
growing regions of Azerbaijan (Goycay and Salyan) in 2014 and 2015 years. Tomato (Lycopersicum
esculentum Mill.) plants exhibiting virus-like disease symptoms were collected in various gardens and
greenhouses and tested by the lateral flow immunoassay technique (the Immunostrip test of Bioreba
AD, Sweden and Agdia Inc., USA) and enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (DAS-ELISA) method. As
a result Tomato mosaic virus (ToMV), Tobacco mosaic virus (TMV), Cucumber mosaic virus (CMV),
Tomato spotted wilt virus (TSWV), Pepper mild mottle virus (PMMoV) were detected in Tomato plants.
RTR-PCR was performed with a pair of tobamovirus universal primers Tobamo 1 (5' -
CGACATCAGCCGATGCAGC-3') and Tobamo 2 (5'-ACCGTTTTCGAACCGAGACT-3') using the total RNA extracted from the symptomatic leaves. The PCR analysis resulted in successful amplification
of expected size (~320 bp) amplicons from the infected samples which are characteristic for tobamovirus.
Keywords: Lycopersicum esculentum Mill., virus disesaes, immunostrips, immunoferment analiz (İFA), enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA), RT-PCR