Australia to Control Tomato Yellow Leaf Curl Disease

The geminiviruses, the causal organism of the tomato yellow leaf curl disease devastates tomato production worldwide. It has affected the Southeast Queensland and could spread in other tomato growing areas of the country through its carrier, the silverleaf whitefly. A new research under the Cooperative Research Centre for National Plant Biosecurity to create new diagnostic methods and help increase Australia's capacity to stop the movement and spread of the plant virus is now underway.

Sharon van Brunschot of the School of Biological Sciences and the primary proponent of the project has discovered a number of genetic characteristics of the virus. "I'm looking into ways for improving the management of this virus by developing better detection methods, which are faster, easier and more accurate," she said. "The virus evolves by exchanging genetic materials with new viruses, thus, the risk for more viruses evolving high. Australia needs to be prepared with cutting edge science to quickly diagnose these threats," she added.

The news article can be viewed at  http://www.uq.edu.au/news/index.html?article=21400