Diversity, distribution and prevalence of vegetable-infecting geminiviruses in Burkina Faso

In West and Central Africa, as in many regions of the world, vegetables are severely affected by geminivirus diseases. In Burkina Faso, observation of various virus-like symptoms, especially on tomato, suggests the involvement of several geminiviruses and underlines the pressing need for additional information on their diversity, distribution, prevalence and host plant reservoirs. Large-scale surveys conducted in Burkina Faso confirmed the presence of tomato (yellow) leaf curl diseases (ToLCD-TYLCD) and geminiviruses in all localities with mean prevalences of 25% and 45%, respectively. Five geminiviruses including four begomoviruses (pepper yellow vein Mali virus (PepYVMLV), tomato leaf curl Burkina Faso virus, tomato leaf curl Mali virus and tomato leaf curl Ghana virus) and a dicot-infecting mastrevirus (chickpea chlorotic dwarf virus) were characterized on tomato. In addition, PepYVMLV and cotton leaf curl Gezira virus (CLCuGeV) were characterized on pepper and okra, respectively, in combination or not with alphasatellites and betasatellites for CLCuGeV. The most severe, prevalent and widely distributed virus on vegetables was PepYVMLV, which was characterized for the first time in combination with a genetically divergent DNA-B component that may constitute a key factor of PepYVMLV pathogenicity. Of the eight weeds identified as potential reservoir hosts of begomoviruses, four host PepYVMLV. The results confirm the importance of geminivirus diseases on vegetable crops in Burkina Faso and highlight the complex association of geminiviruses and satellites. The detection of begomoviruses in weeds growing close to crops points to the increasing necessity to consider reservoir plants and virus communities in the control of virus diseases.