Iris yellow spot virus (Iris yellow spot).

In 1981, de Avila et al. (1981) described a disease characterized by chlorotic and necrotic, eye-like or diamond-shaped lesions on onion scapes (referred to as 'sapeca') in southern Brazil. In 1989, Hall et al. (1993) observed a very similar disease in onion in the USA and detected a tospovirus, which was later shown by Moyer et al. (1993) to be Iris yellow spot virus on the basis of molecular and serological data. In 1998, a new tospovirus was isolated and characterized in the Netherlands from infected iris and leek and named Iris yellow spot virus (IYSV) (Cortês et al., 1998). This virus was subsequently found naturally infecting onion in several major onion-producing states of the USA and around the world (for reviews, see Gent et al., 2006 and Pappu et al., 2009). Gera et al. (1998b) reported that IYSV was responsible for a 'straw bleaching' disease on onion in Israel. In 1999, a 'sapeca' isolate from Brazil was identified as IYSV on the basis of biological, serological and molecular data (Pozzer et al., 1999). In Israel, Kritzman et al. (2000) reported natural IYSV infection of lisianthus grown in the field. IYSV has now been endemic in south-western Idaho and eastern Oregon in onion, leek and chive seed production fields for over 10 years. Losses caused by IYSV can reach 100% in onion crops, for example, in Brazil (Pappu et al., 2009). However, studies in the Netherlands in 2008 showed that latent infections of IYSV were common in onion crops but did not cause economic damage (NPPO of the Netherlands, 2008). Iris yellow spot represents an immediate and serious threat to sustainable and productive onion cropping systems around the world, and the recent detection of this disease in numerous onion-producing countries demonstrates that the disease is spreading rapidly in a range of environments. IYSV is on the EPPO Alert list (http://www.eppo.org/QUARANTINE/Alert_List/alert_list.htm).