Abstract
Tomato leaf curl disease (ToLCD) is associated with begomoviruses, with their generic names as Tomato leaf curl viruses (ToLCVs) and Tomato yellow leaf curl viruses (TYLCVs). ToLCVs exist both with mono/bipartite genomes, whereas TYLCVs carry monopartite genomes. For management of these viruses, three resistance loci Ty-1 to Ty-3 are being deployed, which provides different degree of resistance. These viruses encode a replication initiator protein (Rep), indispensible for virus replication. The conserved/divergent sequences of rep gene(s) were used to develop mono/bipartite virus specific PCR assay. The implications of distinguishing viruses with mono/bipartite genomes for using virus specific resistance loci through breeding have been discussed.