First report of eggplant mottled crinkle virus infecting eggplant in Greece.

During winter 2020-2021, a severe virus-like disease outbreak was observed in eggplant (Solanum melongena L.) hybrids ‘Monarca’ (F1) and ‘Angela’ growing under protected conditions Heraklion, Crete, Greece. In three greenhouses, the percentage of infected plants reached 100% leading to crop abandonment. Symptoms included leaf mottling yellowing accompanied with plant stunting apical necrosis. Extensive fruit damage due malformation necrotic lesions on calyx, peduncle endocarp (Sup. Fig. 1). To identify causal agent, total RNA extracted from symptomatic PureLink™ Mini Kit (ThermoFisher Scientific, USA), which subjected high throughput sequencing (HTS) analysis (Illumina Inc., USA). The de novo assembly obtained 25 million, 75 bp, single-end reads Geneious Prime (Biomatters, New Zealand) annotation resulting contigs BLASTn revealed presence only mottled crinkle virus (EMCV, genus Tombusvirus) sample. assembled sequence EMCV isolate Greece (EMCV-Gr, GenBank Acc. No. MW716271) 4764 bp length, covering full genome showing 96.3 % nucleotide (nt) identity an identified calla lilies (Zantedeschia sp.) Taiwan (AM711119). Five seven asymptomatic eggplants, as well two eggplants were tested by RT-PCR that targeted capsid protein gene (Dombrovsky et al., 2009). PCR products 1184 samples their Sanger 100 nt respective HTS-derived sequence. No product samples. Mechanical sap transmission HTS analysed sample resulted local Nicotiana rustica Chenopodium quinoa, plus systemic necrosis N. tabacum cv. Xanthi-nc, Samsun glutinosa, collapse benthamiana, pepper Yolo Wonder 1I). Although no symptoms tomato Ace 55, infection detected RT-PCR. establish relationship between EMCV, tissue benthamiana used for mechanical inoculation virus-tested negative seedlings Black beauty. Necrotic spots, shoot necrosis, mosaic, J) test ten days post confirmed described. best our knowledge this is first report infecting originally described Lebanon (Makkouk 1981) it mainly present outside European Union (EU) territory, including India, Japan, Taiwan, Iran Israel 2009 references therein). A latent pear Italy (Russo 2002) considered Food Safety Authority exotic genera Cydonia, Malus, Pyrus meets all criteria qualify EU quarantine pest (Bragard 2019). Τhe severity Crete destruction greenhouse cultivations, constitutes emerging threat other solanaceous crops Europe.