Co-Infection of Tomato Brown Rugose Fruit Virus and Pepino Mosaic Virus in Grocery Tomatoes in South Florida: Prevalence and Genomic Diversity

Abstract

Tomato brown rugose fruit virus (ToBRFV) is an economically important seed and mechanically transmitted pathogen of significant importance to tomato production around the globe. Synergistic interaction with pepino mosaic virus (PepMV), another seed and mechanically transmitted virus, and long-distance dissemination of these two viruses via contaminated tomato fruits through global marketing were previously suggested. In 2019, we detected both viruses in several grocery store-purchased tomatoes in South Florida, USA. In this study, to identify potential sources of inoculum, co-infection status, prevalence, and genomic diversity of these viruses, we surveyed symptomatic and asymptomatic imported tomatoes sold in ten different groceries in four cities in South Florida. According to the product labels, all collected tomatoes originated from Canada, Mexico, or repacking houses in the United States. With high prevalence levels, 86.5% of the collected samples were infected with ToBRFV, 90% with PepMV alone, and 73% were mixed-infected. The phylogenetic study showed no significant correlations between ToBRFV genomic diversity and the tomato label origin. Phylogenetic analysis of PepMV isolates revealed the prevalence of the PepMV strains, Chilean (CH2) and recombinant (US2). The results of this study highlight the continual presence of PepMV and ToBRFV in imported tomatoes in Florida grocery stores.