Lavender Harbors More Viruses than Previously Thought: First Report of Raspberry Ringspot Virus and Phlox Virus M in Lavandula × intermedia.

Plants of the genus Lavandula are thought to be rarely infected by viruses. To date, only alfalfa mosaic virus, cucumber mosaic virus, tobacco mosaic virus, and tomato spotted wilt virus have been reported in this host. In this study, we identified for the first time raspberry ringspot virus (RpRSV) and phlox virus M (PhlVM) in lavender using herbaceous indexing, enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay, and high-throughput sequencing. Nearly complete genome sequences for both viruses were determined. Phylogenetic and serological characterizations suggest that the obtained RpRSV isolate is a raspberry strain. A preliminary survey of 166 samples indicated RpRSV was spread only in the lavender cultivar 'Grosso', while PhlVM was detected in multiple lavender cultivars. Although RpRSV raspberry strain may have spread throughout Auckland and nearby areas in New Zealand, it is very likely restricted to the genus Lavandula or even to the cultivar 'Grosso' due to the absence or limited occurrence of the nematode vector. Interestingly, all infected lavender plants, regardless of their infection status (by RpRSV, PhlVM, or both) were asymptomatic. RpRSV is an important virus that infects horticultural crops including grapevine, cherry, berry fruits, and rose. It remains on the list of regulated pests in New Zealand. RpRSV testing is mandatory for imported Fragaria, Prunus, Ribes, Rosa, Rubus, and Vitis nursery stock and seeds for sowing, while this is not required for Lavandula importation. Our study revealed that lavender could play a role not only as a reservoir but also as an uncontrolled import pathway of viruses that pose a threat to New Zealand's primary industries.

First report of Streptocarpus flower break virus in Streptocarpus hybrids in Aotearoa New Zealand.

Streptocarpus (Cape primrose, family Gesneriaceae) is a genus of plants native to Southern Africa commonly grown indoors for their foliage and trumpet-shaped flowers. In Aoteroa New Zealand (NZ) to date, no viruses have been reported to infect plants of the Gesneriaceae (Veerakone et al. 2015). In September 2022, a plant of Streptocarpus hybrid exhibiting necrotic rings was observed in a hobbyist's greenhouse in Auckland, NZ. High-Throughput Sequencing (HTS) using MinIONTM (Oxford Nanopore Technologies), was applied as a first screen (Liefting et al. 2021). Phylogenetic analysis was performed using Geneious Prime 2021 (Biomatters Ltd, NZ). A BLASTn search with 622,847 obtained reads resulted in 3,260 and 4,340 matches to the sequences of Streptocarpus flower break tobamovirus (SFBV) and Impatiens necrotic spot orthotospovirus (INSV), respectively. A near-complete (98.5%) genome sequence of SFBV was obtained (GenBank accession No. OQ970154), which shared 99.52% nucleotide identity to a SFBV type isolate from Germany (GenBank accession No. NC_008365). A phylogenetic tree was also generated (e-Xtra). To confirm the presence of both viruses, leaf tissue was rub inoculated onto herbaceous indicator plants as described by Tang et al. (2013). Chenopodium amaranticolor and C. quinoa plants developed local lesions while Nicotiana occidentalis plants showed local necrosis followed by systemic leaf puckering by 14 days post inoculation (dpi). Nicotiana benthamiana and N. clevelandii plants showed systemic chlorosis but N. tabacum plants did not exhibit any symptoms by 28 dpi. Samples from indicators and Streptocarpus were tested by RT-PCR (SFBV) or RT-qPCR (INSV), using in-house designed primers: SFBV-forward (5'-GTCATCAGCCGGAGAGGTTC-3'), SFBV-reverse (5'-AGGGCGAGTCTCTTCCTCTG-3'), INSV-forward (5'-CAATCAGAGGGTGACTTGGAA-3'), INSV-reverse (5'-GACTTTCCGAAGACTTGATGC-3') and INSV-probe (5'-CCATTGTCCTTTATCATTCCAACAAG-3'). RT-PCR products (across MP and CP regions) of the expected size (357 bp) were amplified from the Streptocarpus sample and symptomatic indicators. All amplicons were sequenced in both directions and found to be identical to the obtained HTS sequence. The presence of INSV was confirmed in all Streptocarpus and inoculated indicators except N. tabacum by INSV-specific RT-qPCR. A further 77 Streptocarpus plants were collected from a greenhouse in Auckland that holds a collection of multiple Streptocarpus cultivars from across NZ and overseas. Twenty-five plants, either displaying flower colour-break (only one plant) or asymptomatic (24 plants), tested positive for SFBV by RT-PCR. All amplicons were sequenced and found to be identical. SFBV was first described from naturally infected Streptocarpus plants in 1995 in the Netherlands (Verhoeven et al. 1995), and then in Germany (Heinze et al. 2006) and the United States (Pappu & Druffel 2007). While INSV has been found in NZ in several plant genera (Veerakone et al., 2015), to our knowledge, this is the first report of SFBV in NZ. SFBV was thought to be associated with colour breaking of Streptocarpus flowers (Verhoeven et al. 1995) but the virus was detected in asymptomatic Streptocarpus plants in this study and in California (Pappu & Druffel 2007). Given SFBV-infected plants were purchased from several sources, and leaf cuttings for propagation are shared among hobbyists, SFBV is likely to have spread throughout NZ. How this will affect production is unclear at this stage.