Five Viruses Isolated from Field-Grown Buffalo Gourd (Cucurbita foetidissima), a Potential Crop for Semiarid Lands. M. E. Rosemeyer, Department of Plant Pathology, University of Arizona, Tucson 85721. J. K. Brown, and M. R. Nelson, Department of Plant Pathology, University of Arizona, Tucson 85721. Plant Dis. 70:405-409. Accepted for publication 10 November 1985. Copyright 1986 The American Phytopathological Society. DOI: 10.1094/PD-70-405.

Five distinct plant viruses were isolated from greenhouse-maintained cuttings of buffalo gourd (Cucurbita foetidissima) taken from plants grown in germ plasm nurseries near Tucson, AZ. Both single and mixed viral infections were associated with symptomatic plants in the field. Viruses were distinguished from one another by mechanical and/or insect transmission, particle morphology, experimental host range, and serology. Four of the viruses were mechanically transmissible: cucumber mosaic virus, watermelon mosaic virus 1, squash mosaic virus 2, and the recently identified whitefly-transmissible geminivirus, watermelon curly mottle virus. The fifth, lettuce infectious yellows virus, is exclusively whitefly-transmissible. Although these plant viruses are known to infect cultivated cucurbits, an investigation of naturally occurring viruses of buffalo gourd in Arizona had not been undertaken.

Keyword(s): aphid-transmitted viruses, cucurbit viruses, potyvirus, squash mosaic virus.