Abstract:
Tomato spotted wilt virus (TSWV), the type species of the genus Tospovirus has long been reported infecting eco nomically important horticultural crops such as tomato, groundnut, pepper, potato and soybean, all over the
world. In Sri Lanka, characteristic tospovirus symptoms such as bud necrosis, axillary shoot proliferation and
ring spots were observed on leaves of groundnut in Angunakolapalassa, and concentric rings on leaves and fruits
of tomato, in Ambalantota and Gannoruwa. Sap extracted from both tomato and groundnut plants was serologically positive for TSWV infection in a double antibody sandwich enzyme-linked immunosorbentassay (DAS ELISA), but not for Groundnut bud necrosis virus (GBNV). Nucleocapsid (N) genes of both isolates were amplified in Reverse Transcription Polymerase Chain Reactions (RT-PCR) using primers specific for TSWV and
GBNV. The sequences obtained showed 98% amino acid sequence identity to the N gene of the Brazilian isolate of
TSWV-BR-01. This study confirms the presence of TSWV infecting groundnut and tomato in Sri Lanka
