Isolation and Molecular Characterization of a Chilean Isolate of Zucchini yellow mosaic virus

Incidence and disease control of Zucchini yellow mosaic potyvirus

Zucchini yellow mosaic potyvirus (ZYMV) was first identified in northern Italy. It likes other species of the family Potyuiridue. ZYMV has been recorded in many countries since 1981. The efficient intercontinental spread of the virus can be explained by international trading of infected seeds. Since coat protein (CP) analysis has become a primary method for taxonomic assignment of potyviruses the aims were to characterize this genomic region of ZYMV originating from virus-infected cucurbitaceous seedlings. Virus infection in cucurbits is typically associated with mosaic symptoms on leaves and lumpy, distorted fruit. The range of symptoms produced by each virus can overlap and plants are commonly infected by more than one virus at once. The viruses are spread by many species of aphids moving through or within a crop. Control options include: destroying old cucurbit crops as soon as harvesting is completed destroying weeds and volunteer cucurbits, within and around crops as these harbor the viruses and/or the aphids separating new crops from maturing crops as these will have high levels of virus infection avoiding overlapping crops of cucurbits.

Characterization of Hungarian isolates of zucchini yellow mosaic virus (ZYMV, potyvirus) transmitted by seeds of Cucurbita pepo var Styriaca

Zucchini yellow mosaic virus (ZYMV) has emerged as an important pathogen of cucurbits within the last few years in Hungary. The Hungarian isolates show a high biological variability, have specific nucleotide and amino acid sequences in the N-terminal region of coat protein and form a distinct branch in the phylogenetic tree. The virus is spread very efficiently in the field by several aphid species in a non-persistent manner. It can be transmitted by seed in holl-less seeded oil pumpkin (Cucurbita pepo (L) var Styriaca), although at a very low rate. Three isolates from seed transmission assay experiments were chosen and their nucleotide sequences of coat proteins have been compared with the available CP sequences of ZYMV. According to the sequence analysis, the Hungarian isolates belong to the Central European branch in the phylogenetic tree and, together with the ZYMV isolates from Austria and Slovenia, share specific amino acids at positions 16, 17, 27 and 37 which are characteristic only to these isolates. The phylogenetic tree suggests the common origin of distantly distributed isolates which can be attributed to widespread seed transmission.