Serological Relationships and Partial Characterization of Zucchini Yellow Mosaic Virus Isolated from Squash in Florida. D. E. Purcifull, Professor, Department of Plant Pathology, University of Florida, Gainesville 32611. W. C. Adlerz, Professor, Agricultural Research Center, University of Florida, Leesburg 32748; and G. W. Simone, Associate Professor, E. Hiebert, Professor, and S. R. Christie, Plant Pathologist III, Department of Plant Pathology, University of Florida, Gainesville 32611. Plant Dis. 68:230-233. Accepted for publication 7 September 1983. Copyright 1984 The American Phytopathological Society. DOI: 10.1094/PD-68-230.

Thirty-nine plants with foliar mosaic symptoms were collected in Alachua, Lake, and Sumter counties in the fall of 1981 and tested by sodium dodecyl sulfate (SDS)-immunodiffusion tests against antisera to watermelon mosaic viruses 1 and 2 (WMV-1 and WMV-2), a Moroccan isolate (WMV-M), squash mosaic virus (SqMV), and cucumber mosaic virus (CMV). Seven plants were infected with WMV-1 only, 21 were infected with WMV-2 only, 8 were infected with both WMV-1 and WMV-2, and 3 were infected with a virus serologically related to WMV-2 but distinct from it. None of the samples was infected with WMV-M, SqMV, or CMV. One of the WMV-2-related isolates (1119) was mechanically transmitted to zucchini squash in the greenhouse, where it caused systemic mosaic, distortion, veinbanding, and blistering of leaves. This isolate also induced systemic infections of cucumber, watermelon, cantaloup, and Luffa acutangula and local infections of Chenopodium amaranticolor, C. quinoa, Phaseolus vulgaris, and Pisum sativum ‘Alaska.’ The virus was transmitted in a styletborne manner by Myzus persicae. Striated inclusions and filamentous particles (about 760 nm long) were found in negatively stained leaf extracts. Isolate 1119 was found to be closely related serologically to zucchini yellow mosaic virus (ZYMV) from Italy in SDS-immunodiffusion tests. Virus isolates serologically and symptomatologically similar to ZYMV were found in six counties representing the northern, central, and southern portions of Florida in 1982.