The Detection of Virus Diseases in the Protected Tomato Production Areas around Mugla Province

The present study was performed to find out the virus diseases in tomato plants growing at the protected production areas in Mugla province between 2002 and 2004. During the studies, the greenhouses with implementation of integrated pest management were visited twice a month. Since IPM was conducted in the greenhouses visited, at the beginning of the works, the seeds and seedlings of tomato cultivars were tested for the presence of Tobacco mosaic tobamovirus (TMV), Tomato mosaic tobamovirus (ToMV), Cucumber mosaic cucumovirus (CMV), Tomato spotted wilt tospovirus (TSWV), Tomato yellow leaf curl bigeminivirus (TYLCV) and Potato Y potyvirus (PVY) by DAS-ELISA and other techniques before sowing and transplanting. The obtained results revealed that all of tested seeds and seedlings samples were free from the viruses mentioned above. In the examinations throughout the cultivation periods, it was seen that main virus like symptoms on the tomato plants were mosaic, mottling, upward curling and deformation in leaves, the formation of cup-shaped leaflets and stunting in plants. Some leaf samples were taken from the suspected tomato and tested for the existence of TMV, ToMV, CMV, TSWV, TYLCV and PVY by DAS-ELISA. The incidence of TMV, TSWV and CMV in the leaf samples were 30.00, 3.85 and 2.56%, respectively. In the visual inspections, TYLCV like symptoms were observed on plants and the virus was identified by using molecular hybridization methods. According to the data from molecular hybridization tests, 53 tomato leaf samples were infected with TYLCV. The whiteflies which were the vectors of TYLCV existed in all of infested greenhouses. The population densities of whiteflies were different in each of infected greenhouses.