Detection of Tomato Yellow Leaf Curl Virus in Azerbaijan and Partial Characterization of Biochemical Properties of Naturally Infected Plants

In order to detect the presence of virus during summer and autumn 2009 tomatoes with leaf curling and yellowing symptoms were collected by us from fields and greenhouses located in the main tomato production provinces of Azerbaijan. The viral DNA was amplified by Rolling Circle Amplification (RCA) using TempliPhi Amplification Kit. Restriction fragment length polymorphism (RFLP) analysis of viral DNA revealed products with close homology to the TYLCV. At the same time, some biochemical responses to viral diseases of symptomatic plants were also studied. It was found out that the activities of antioxidant enzymes, including glutathione reductase (GR) and catalase (CAT) significantly increased in all symptomatic samples compared to non-infected plants. Dynamics of ascorbate peroxidase (APX) and superoxide dismutase (SOD) activities differed from those of CAT and GR. APX activity slightly increased in stressed samples. And SOD activity did not seem to be affected by viral stress. Total protein and chlorophyll content decreased during degradation in pathogenesis. Significant decrease was also observed in Fv/Fm ratio (0.56) of symptomatic tomatoes as compared with control (0.72). Obtained results showed that photochemical activity of PS I and PS II decreased under viral disease.