Tomato yellow leaf curl virus: a whitefly-transmitted geminivirus with a single genomic component

The genome of the tomato yellow leaf curl virus (TYLCV), a Bemisia tabaci-transmitted geminivirus, was cloned. All clones obtained were of one genomic molecule, analogous to DNA A of African cassava mosaic virus. Nucleotide sequence analysis of the TYLCV genome showed that it comprises 2787 nucleotides, encoding six open reading frames, two on the virion strand and four on the complementary strand. All of them have counterparts in other geminiviruses. Dimeric copies of the cloned viral genome were introduced into tomato plants by agroinoculation. Severe yellow leaf curl disease symptoms developed in all of them. Effective whitefly-mediated transmission of the virus from agroinoculated plants to test plants demonstrated that the cloned molecule carries all the information needed for virus replication, systemic infection, and transfer by whiteflies. Restriction and hybridization analyses of viral DNA forms in infected plants and viruliferous whiteflies did not support the presupposed existence of a second genomic component. This is the first report of a whitefly-transmitted geminivirus that possesses a single genomic molecule.