Tomato yellow leaf curl virus significance and control measures in tomato

Abstract

Tomato yellow leaf curl virus is one of the most harmful viruses which damages tomato plants and causes significant yield losses. After its first appearance in the 1930s, it started to spread all over the world via infected tomato seedlings and vector, a whitefly Bemisia argentifolii. In order to stop the infections and preserve the health of cultivated plants, different measures are being conducted starting with maintaining the field and indoor space hygiene and quarantine measures, all the way to the vector suppression measures. Apart from that, there have been efforts in breeding resistant tomato plants. Sources of the resistance to the virus have been found in some wild tomato species. Additional research is needed so as to improve the existing methods of protection against TYLCV and create new resistant plants. It is also crucial to take into consideration the fact that more aggressive and virulent virus strains are likely to appear due to recombination events, as well as vector varieties resistant to insecticides.