Tomato Leaf Curl Presentation

Thanks so much for sharing your presentation Bea and was really great...
and I have some questions that we were not able to answer in class:
1) is there any particular variety of tomato that is more susceptible than other? cherry for example?
2) why the classification has been an issue throw these years?
3) Could you please talk a little bit more about the new technology that has been used for the development of resistant varieties the RNA that you mentioned in class..



Gabi, here are the answers:
1) I found that the tomatoes from Globe variety are more susceptible to leaf curl virus that other varieties such as Cherry and Roma. In those last two it is possible to see some resistance for leaf curl virus in general.

2) In the very beginning, the classification was a problem due to the way that the subgroups were subdivided and so the many exceptions into those groups in order to make all the virus fit. However, the taxonomy and the way the virus are transmitted made it a way more difficult. In the end, more genera were created inside of the Geminiviridae family, and so all the subgroups were reclassified into those new genera.

3) Gabi, as I mentioned in class there is not too much information regarding that. However what I understood is that they are trying methods that use siRNAs (short interference RNAs) to suppress the action of intracellular viral target mRNAs.

I hope this answered your questions!