Differences in the 3' intergenic region and the V2 protein of two sequence variants of tomato curly stunt virus play an important role in disease pathology in Nicotiana benthamiana.

Tomato production in South Africa is threatened by the emergence of tomato curly stunt virus (ToCSV), a monopartite Begomovirus transmitted by the whitefly vector Bemisia tabaci (Genn.). We investigated the role of sequence differences present in the 3' intergenic region (IR) and the V2 coding region on the differing infectivity of ToCSV sequence variant isolates V30 and V22 in the model host Nicotiana benthamiana.