Isolation and Whole-Genome Sequencing of Tomato Brown Rugose Fruit Virus from Pepper in Iran

Global food security is constantly threatened by emerging plant viruses, which cause outbreaks that reduce the yield and the quality of crops that sustain food chains. Tomato brown rugose fruit virus (ToBRFV) (genus Tobamovirus , family Virgaviridae ) is an emerging plant virus which, since first being reported in Jordan in 2015, has spread to many countries in the Americas, Asia, Africa, and Europe causing high losses in tomato and pepper crops. We have carried out a survey of ToBRFV in Iran and performed the biological and molecular characterization of a pepper ToBRFV isolate from Yazd province. Our results show that ToBRFV was distributed in nine provinces of Iran during 2021–22. ToBRFV–Yazd induces mild-to-severe mosaic symptoms on tomato, deformation and stunting in infected pepper, necrotic lesions on pepper fruit, systemic symptoms on Datura metel , necrotic local lesions on Gompherena globosa , and chlorotic local lesions on Chenopodium amaranticolor . No symptoms were observed on cucumber, melon, and cowpea. The complete genome sequence of ToBRFV–Yazd was determined, the first complete genome sequence for a ToBRFV isolate from Iran. The sequence is 6,392 nucleotides long and includes four open reading frames encoding the typical tobamovirus proteins. Sequence comparisons and phylogenetic analysis with ToBRFV isolates from different countries indicated a very high degree of genetic uniformity among ToBRFV isolates, suggesting a short evolutionary history.