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First Report of Zucchini yellow mosaic virus in Cucumber in Poland

In June 2002, mosaic and interveinal chlorosis were observed on two cucumber plants (Cucumis sativus) grown in one commercial greenhouse in the western region of Poland. Electron microscopic examination of leaf-dip preparations from infected plants showed flexuous filamentous virus particles typical of potyviruses (720 to 750 nm long). Chenopodium amaranticolor, Chenopodium quinoa, Citrullus lanatus, C. melo, C. sativus, Cucurbita maxima, Cucurbita pepo, Cucurbita pepo cv. Giromontiina, Cucurbita pepo cv. Patissoniana, Nicotiana benthamiana, and N. tabacum were mechanically inoculated with sap from symptomatic cucumber leaves. The virus caused local chlorotic lesions on Chenopodium amaranticolor and Chenopodium quinoa and systemic infection in all tested cucurbits but it did not infect tobacco plants. Reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) amplification of the 3′ end of the genomic RNA was done by using P9502 as a downstream primer and degenerate CPUP as an upstream primer to amplify a highly conserved region of the potyviral coat protein (1). The PCR products were directly sequenced with the CEQ DTCS dye terminator cycle sequencing kit (Beckman Coulter, Inc., Fullerton, CA), and the analysis of dideoxy terminated fragments was conducted by capillary electrophoresis using a CEQ 2000 DNA Analysis System (Beckman Coulter, Inc.). The obtained 684 nt sequence (GenBank Accession No. AY347476) was almost identical with sequences of Zucchini yellow mosaic virus (ZYMV) isolates from Austria (GenBank Accession Nos. AJ420012-AJ420019 and AJ420027) and Hungary (GenBank Accession Nos. AJ459954 and AJ459955). The above suggested that the Polish isolate of ZYMV belonged to the Central European branch of the phylogenetic tree (2). To our knowledge, this is the first report of ZYMV in Poland.

References: (1) R. A. A. van der Vlugt et al. Phytopathology 89:148, 1999. (2) I. Tobias and L. Palkovics. Pest Manage. Sci. 59:493, 2003.