Mixed infection by two West African tomato-infecting begomoviruses and ageratum leaf curl Cameroon betasatellite in tomato in Cameroon

Begomovirus isolates ToF3B2 and ToF3B17 and betasatellite isolate SatBToF3 were obtained from the same infected tomato plant showing begomovirus disease symptoms in Fontem, Cameroon. The full-length nucleotide sequences of ToF3B2, ToF3B17 and SatBToF3 were cloned and sequenced and were determined to be 2,797 nt, 2,794 and 1,373 nt long respectively. When compared with other begomovirus and betasatellite sequences, ToF3B2 was 93.5 % identical to Tomato leaf curl Togo virus, ToF3B17 was 95 % identical to Tomato leaf curl Cameroon virus and SatBToF3 was 92 % identical to Ageratum leaf curl Cameroon betasatellite (ALCCMB), respectively. The identification of ALCCMB in Ageratum and now in tomato strongly suggests Ageratum may be an alternative host to these viruses and that ALCCMB is non host specific and may cause severe diseases when transmitted to other crops.