APSnet Image of the Week

Symptoms on pepper produced by Tomato spotted wilt tospovirus. Initial symptoms on leaves are small necrotic lesions that coalesce with time, often accompanies by ringspots. Early infection may lead to severe stunting of the plant. Symptoms on the fruit are characterized by necrotic lesions.

Photographs courtesy H.R. Pappu
Department of Plant Pathology, The University of Georgia
Coastal Plain Experiment Station, P.O. Box 748, Tifton, GA 31793-0748

Host: Capsicum annuum, pepper
Disease name: tomato spotted wilt
Pathogen name: Tomato spotted wilt tospovirus

Background: Spotted wilt disease, caused by Tomato spotted wilt virus (TSWV), is a major yield-limiting factor to pepper production in Georgia. In Spring 1999, individual fields in certain counties had more than 80% diseased plants resulting in severe crop loss. TSWV has a wide host range (about 800 plant species) and is transmitted by at least seven thrips species. The overlapping host range of the virus and vector makes managing the disease very difficult. Certain cultural practices such as growing pepper on black plastic during Spring and on white plastic during Fall reduces the disease incidence. The beneficiary effect of using plastic appears to be due to altered behavior of thrips vectors. Advanced breeding lines with considerable field resistance to TSWV are being considered for commercial release.

APS publication number:  IW00016

License to Copy. This notice hereby grants permission to APSnet users to copy the Image of the Week for noncommercial, personal use. All components of APSnet are copyrighted (including the Image of the Week) and may not be reproduced or distributed except by express permission of APS. Copyright is not claimed for material provided by United States government employees as part of their work. APSnet copyright extends to images, text, graphics, photographs, illustrations, audio, video, computer software, and all other elements of the site.

Instructions to Copy. For PC, position your mouse cursor on the week’s image, click the right mouse button, and choose "Save Picture As..." or "Save this Image as..." whichever is the case. For Mac, click the only mouse button and follow the same steps. Users may want to set up a specific directory and file naming scheme for storing images; otherwise, they will be saved using your system defaults. Images may be used in any software application that supports JPEG file format or viewed in an Internet browser as local files.