The determination of some Tobamovirus members' presence rates in tomato and pepper seeds, their transmission from seed to seedlings and translocation in tomato and pepper plants

In this study, 60 pepper seeds (50 standard, 10 hybrid) and 64 tomato seeds (24 standard, 40 hybrid) were collected from seed companies and tested for seed-transmitted viral agents by DAS-ELISA method. In hybrid tomato seeds, ToMV and TMV infection rate were determined as 19,25% and 20% respectively. In standard tomato seeds, it was found that ToMV at the rate of 41,66% and TMV+ToMV at the rate of 20,83%. In hybrid pepper seed samples, only one of the samples was found infected with ToMV. In standard pepper seed samples, the presence rates were 4% and 12% for TMV and ToMV, respectively. In order to determine transmission rate from seed to seedlings, one standard tomato and pepper seed samples which were infected ToMV and TMV in high levels were selected. According to the results obtained from DAS-ELISA tests, ToMV and TMV infection could not be detected in the seedlings that were emerged from infected seeds. In order to find out the translocation of the ToMV and TMV in tomato and pepper plants, ToMV tomato and TMV pepper isolates which were previously isolated were used and the trials were conducted according to randomized plots trial design with 4 replications. DAS-ELISA tests were conducted with the samples which were taken on different days from different parts of standard and hybrid tomato and pepper plants and obtained data were evaluated statistically. It was found that the obtained results from standard tomato and pepper plants showed parallelism with the previous studies in this subject. However, in hybrid tomato and pepper plants, ToMV and TMV infections was detected at very low concentrations and the infections were limited in hybrid tomato and pepper plants. These obtained results suggested that the spread of viral agents in plants were restricted due to the variety features.