CHARACTERIZATION OF A NEW WHITEFLY-TRANSMITTED VIRUS FROM A WILD LEGUME IN PUERTO RICO THAT INFECTS BEAN, AND MOLECULAR SURVEY OF BEAN VIRUSES IN PUERTO RICO, DOMINICAN REPUBLIC, AND NORTHERN MEXICO

摘要

Whitefly-transmitted geminiviruses, or Begomoviruses, have been recognized as emergent pathogens of vegetable and fiber crops in tropical and fringe temperate zones, worldwide. Begomoviruses are transmitted in a persistent manner by a suite of variants, or 'biotypes', of the whitefly vector, Bemisia tabaci (Genn.). 'Topcrop' and 'Red Kidney' bean (P. vulgaris) are highly susceptible to nearly all begomoviruses isolated from vegetable crops and studied systematically during the past decade in the Arizona (J.K. Brown) laboratory. These viruses are typically quite virulent in bean as well as other vegetable crop species, are widespread, and cause economic losses in most vegetable growing regions of the Americas (Brown, 1990; 1994; Brown et al., 1999; Idris and Brown, 1998). Begomoviruses from the Eastern Hemisphere also can infect bean, including Tomato yellow leaf curl virus from Israel, which was recently introduced in the US Sunbelt States, the Caribbean Basin (Bird et al., 2001), and Mexico (Idris et al., 2007; Isakeit et al., 2007).