Description
Groundnut ringspot virus (GRSV) was first identified affecting tomatoes in Florida in 2009. GRSV can infect tomato plants at all stages of growth and lead to unmarketable fruits or plant death. GRSV is related to Tomato spotted wilt virus (TSWV; in the tospovirus group), which has been present in North Florida (and much of the southeastern United States) since the mid-1980s.
Symptoms typical of tospovirus infection have been sporadically observed on tomato plants in the Homestead area of Miami-Dade County in South Florida for about a decade, but TSWV (the only tospovirus known to infect tomato in Florida) was only occasionally detected. From November 2009 through February 2010, tospovirus symptoms were again observed in this area, and GRSV was detected by specific molecular and serological tests. This was the first report of GRSV in the United States and extends the known distribution of this tospovirus beyond South America and South Africa to North America