First report of Turnip mosaic virus infecting saffron in Iran

Saffron (Crocus sativus) is widely used as an important herbal medicine crop worldwide. Iran is the largest producer and exporter of saffron in the world. Turnip mosaic virus (TuMV) is a species of the genus Potyvirus, which infects a wide range of plants species. During the autumn of 2019, saffron plants with symptoms including colour breaking of the flowers, chlorosis and mild mosaic of leaves were collected from the major saffron cultivation areas of Iran. After the isolation of total RNA from diseased samples, RT-PCR was done using TuMV-specific primers. Amplicons of two selected isolates were purified, cloned, and sequenced. BLASTn of obtained sequences indicated high similarity with TuMV sequences. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first finding of TuMV infection in the saffron plant of Iran.