Identificación serológica y molecular de virus del tomate de árbol (Solanum betaceum) en cultivos de Córdoba (Nari？o, Colombia)

introduction. the diseases caused by viruses have become an obstacle for tree tomato crops in several colombian regions, including those from the nari？o province. previous studies pointed at a possible potyvirus and at several isometric viruses as associated to these diseases, though their taxonomic identity in the species level and their incidence had not been determined yet. an approach to this situation was made by the use of elisa, rt-pcr and viral sequence capsid tests from samples brought from five crops affected by viruses in córdoba (nari？o). results. the results indicated the presence of potyvirus in all of the samples analyzed, while cmv virus (33%), tomv (50%) and plrv (75%) had a great incidence in the crops from the region.the molecular analysis allowed the identification of potyvirus as a member of the pvy species, sharing identity levels above 92% with strains obtained in potato crops from several countries, while the polerovirus sequences obtained identities above 98% with plrv strains from the same crop. conclusion. this research work confirms that there is a viral complex associated to viruses in tree tomatoes from the nari？o province and, base on the sequence analysis, exposes the possible crossed infection of pvy and plrv strains in potato and tomato plantations in the region, a fact which requires an experimental confirmation by pathogenicity evaluations.