Natural host and genetic diversity of the emerging Tomato leaf curl New Delhi virus in Spain

Knowledge of the host range and genetic structure of emerging plant viruses can provide insight into fundamental ecological and evolutionary processes, including the applied side for the design and implementation of sustainable disease control measures. Tomato leaf curl New Delhi virus (ToLCNDV) is an emerging begomovirus (whitefly-transmitted virus) that is rapidly spreading and is responsible for economically important diseases in the cucurbit crops of the Mediterranean basin. Genetic characterization of these ToLCNDV Mediterranean populations showed to be monophyletic in cucurbit plants. However, the extent to which other alternative (cultivated and wild) hosts may affect ToLCNDV genetic population structure and virus prevalence remains unknown. Furthermore, we performed deep full-genome sequencing of 80 ToLCNDV isolates from different plant hosts, location and cropping year, and our phylogenetic analysis supported the result of a genetically very homogeneous Mediterranean virus population, with no clustering pattern, and quite differenced from those from Asian populations.