Tomato Spotted Wilt Virus – Potato Cultivar Susceptibility and Tuber Transmission

Tomato spotted wilt virus is an economically important pathogen in several potato producing areas in the world. Although natural infections of potato in Serbia have not been detected, two TSWV isolates from tobacco, with different biological features were compared based on NSm gene sequence analysis and they were used for mechanical and graft inoculations to evaluate the susceptibility of five popular potato cultivars: ‘Riviera’, ‘Arnova’, ‘Curoda’, ‘Kondor’ and ‘Aladin’. Both TSWV isolates infected all tested potato cultivars. Statistical analyses showed that the rate of TSWV transmission from infected foliage to tubers and from infected tubers to progeny plants was affected by cultivars, while virus transmission efficiency was independent of investigated isolates. Different potato tissues used for sample preparation did not influence virus detection by ELISA, but composite sampling from six different tuber parts is recommended since it was the most reliable.