First report of Olive latent virus 2 in wild castor bean (Ricinus communis) in Italy.

Most aspects of the eco-biology of OLV2 are still unclear (e.g. vector transmission, isolate variability, natural host range). OLV2 was previously detected in wild castor bean in Greece (Vovlas et al., 2002); we have described in Italy a disease caused by another OLV2 isolate in the same host. This new finding might suggest a potential role of castor bean in the epidemiology of OLV2, by acting as a natural virus reservoir.