Molecular evidence for the occurrence of TYLCV on Mentha longifolia in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia.

Begomoviruses are whiteflies transmitted virus causing serious disease in many important plants exhibiting variable symptoms with significant economic loss globally. Mentha is an important crop being grown here in Saudi Arabia for various purposes. The begomovirus associated disease was observed on Mentha crops during field survey which were growing near to tomato field. There is no published report available about the association of begomovirus on Mentha from this region. So, this work was conducted to identify the causative agent associated with yellow vein mosaic disease. Naturally infected samples were collected from various locations and causative agent was identified by PCR using begomovirus specific primers and further cloned and sequenced bidirectionally. The full genome had total 2785 nucleotides while betasatellite molecule had 1365 nucleotides. Based on full-genome sequence analysis, the identity matrix and phylogenetic analysis showed the highest identity (99.6%) with Tomato yellow leaf curl virus (TYLCV) reported from tomato in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. The identified begomovirus was observed as isolate of TYLCV.