Development of a real-time PCR for Tomato yellow leaf curl Sardinia virus

Recently, tomato yellow leaf curl disease has become important for the tomato grown both in greenhouse and field conditions in Tunisia. Here, we describe a rapid, specific, reliable, and sensitive real-time PCR, based on TaqMan chemistry, for Tomato yellow leaf curl Sardinia virus (TYLCSV). This method proved suitable for the detection and quantification of this virus in tomato, pepper and bean plants. It detected the virus even in the samples that were negative by conventional assays.