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. 2023 Mar 30;15(4):883.
doi: 10.3390/v15040883.

Prevalences of Tobamovirus Contamination in Seed Lots of Tomato and Capsicum

David J Dall  1 , David A Lovelock  2 , Lindsay D J Penrose  1 , Fiona E Constable  2
Affiliations

Prevalences of Tobamovirus Contamination in Seed Lots of Tomato and Capsicum

David J Dall et al. Viruses. .

Abstract

Seed lots of tomato and capsicum (Solanum lycopersicon and Capsicum annuum, respectively) are required to be free of quarantine pests before their entry to Australia is permitted. Testing of samples from 118 larger seed lots in the period 2019-2021 revealed that 31 (26.3%) carried one or more of four Tobamovirus species, including tomato mottle mosaic virus (ToMMV), which is a quarantine pest for Australia. Testing of samples from a further 659 smaller seed lots showed that 123 (18.7%) carried a total of five Tobamovirus species, including ToMMV and tomato brown rugose fruit virus (ToBRFV), which is also a quarantine pest for Australia. Estimated prevalence of contamination by tobamoviruses ranged from 0.388% to 0.004% in contaminated larger seed lots. Analyses of these data allow us to estimate probabilities of detection of contamination under different regulatory settings.

Keywords: biosecurity; seed-borne pathogens; tobamovirus.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare no conflict of interest.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Cumulative distribution curves of tobamovirus and pospiviroid prevalences in contaminated tomato and capsicum seed lots. Curves display the cumulative proportions by percentage (y-axis) of contaminated seed lots with pathogen prevalence greater than, or equal to, to the fractional rate (%) of prevalence identified on the x-axis.
Figure 2
Figure 2
Comparative detectability of contaminated consignments with 95% confidence using test sample sizes of 20,000 and 3000 seeds.
Figure 3
Figure 3
Comparative detectability of contaminated consignments with 99% confidence using test samples sizes of 20,000 and 3000 seeds.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

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