SUMMARY Tomato

production in the Mediterranean region and elsewhere is under constant threat of the whitefly-trans-mitted begomoviruses that cause Tomato yellow leaf curl disease (TYLCD). Sequencing has indicated that the generic ‘TYLCV ’ includes a large number of viruses and strains. We studied the distribution of the tomato yellow leaf curl disease-associated viruses in Egypt, Is-rael, Jordan and Lebanon. Two simple and reliable mul-tiplex PCR protocols (mPCR) were developed that al-lowed the detection of Tomato yellow leaf curl virus (TYLCV) and Tomato yellow leaf curl Sardinia virus (TYLCSV) species, in addition to Tomato yellow leaf curl virus-Mild (TYLCV-Mld) strain. PCR products were sequenced to confirm their identity. The full-length genomes were also sequenced of TYLCV fro