First Report of Tomato spotted wilt virus in Blackberry Lily in North America

Abstract

Blackberry lily (Belamcanda chinensis (L.) DC.) is an herbaceous perennial in the Iridaceae characterized by purple-spotted orange flowers followed by persistent clusters of black fruit. In July 2002, virus-like symptoms including chlorotic ringspots and ring patterns were observed on blackberry lily leaves on 2 of 10 plants in a south Florida ornamental demonstration garden. Inclusion body morphology suggested the presence of a Tospovirus. Tomato spotted wilt virus (TSWV) was specifically identified by serological testing using enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (Agdia, Elkhart, IN). Sequence analysis of a nucleocapsid (N) protein gene fragment amplified by reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) with primers TSWV723 and TSWV722 (1) from total RNA confirmed the diagnosis. Nucleotide and deduced amino acid sequences of a 579 base pair region of the RT-PCR product were 95 to 99% and 95 to 100% identical, respectively, to TSWV N-gene sequences in GenBank. Since these 2-year-old plants were grown on-site from seed, they were likely inoculated by thrips from a nearby source. Together with a previous observation of TSWV in north Florida nursery stock (L. Breman, unpublished), this represents, to our knowledge, the first report of TSWV infection of blackberry lily in North America although TSWV was observed in plants of this species in Japan 25 years ago (2). References: (1) S. Adkins, and E. N. Rosskopf. Plant Dis. 86:1310, 2002. (2) T. Yamamoto and K.-I. Ohata. Bull. Shikoku Agric. Exp. Stn. 30:39, 1977.