INFLUENCE OF ENVIRONMENT, CULTIVAR AND VIRUS STRAIN ON THE EXPRESSION OF TOBACCO MOSAIC VIRUS SYMPTOMS IN TOMATO

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Abstract
Symptom expression in tomatoes infected with isolates of tobacco mosaic virus (TMV) was profoundly influenced by temperature, day-length and light intensity. We suggest that symptoms such as fern-leaf and distortion, which result from the interplay of virus and host with the environment, have little meaning as descriptive terms for virus isolates except under circumstances in which certain factors of the environment are strictly controlled. Differentiation of pathogenic strains of TMV on Pelham’s isogenic tomato lines containing Tm factors was most satisfactorily achieved when tests were conducted at approximately 20 C with a light intensity of 10,800 lux and a daylength of 14 hours. The existence of varying degrees of receptivity to TMV, revealed when susceptible tomato cultivars were incubated under various environmental regimens, indicates that plant breeders may be able to find acceptable levels of tolerance to TMV even in hosts which contain no major genes for resistance to the virus.

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