A new challenge in melon resistance breeding: the ToLCNDV case

Abstract

Tomato leaf curl New Dehli virus (ToLCNDV) is a whitefly transmitted plant virus that is affecting European melon cultivation for over a decade. Since its first introduction in the Mediterranean basin the virus has been associated with significant economic losses including lower yields and cracked non-marketable fruits in Spain and other key cucurbits production areas. Since there is no chemical application against viral pathogens the focus is geared towards resistance breeding. Various QTLs associated with ToLCNDV resistance have been reported over the recent years in melon and other cucurbits. In the current review we summarize the latest advances in melon breeding for ToLCNDV resistance and present all relevant loci known so far in cucurbits. As a way forward in the future we propose an alternative to traditional resistance gene introgression breeding by exploiting the knowledge on genes that confer susceptibility to the virus in melon and other cucurbits.

Tomato leaf curl New Delhi virus: an emerging plant begomovirus threatening cucurbit production

“…1 A, B) and melon fruits have longitudinal cracks (Fig. 1 C) (Siskos et al 2022 ). Infected bitter gourd shows mosaic mottling with slight curling of leaves (Fig.…”

“…Following its first report 28 years ago, ToLCNDV has been reported to infect a large number of economically important crops, over a wide range of families, including Cucurbitaceae , Solanaceae , Malvaceae , Fabaceae and Euphorbiaceae (Seal et al 2006 ). Particularly in the cucurbits, ToLCNDV can cause severe losses in such vegetables as zucchini ( Cucurbita pepo ), cucumber ( Cucumis sativus ), and squash ( Cucurbita moschata ), and in fruits such as melon ( Cucumis melo ) and watermelon ( Citrullus lanatus ), as well as several pumpkin species (Bandaranayake et al 2014 ; Siskos et al 2022 ; Venkataravanappa et al 2020 ; Yamamoto et al 2021 ). In Europe, ToLCNDV has had severe negative impacts on various crops, especially cucurbits, with losses of up to 20% in open-field melon production in central Spain (Saez et al 2017 ).…”

“…Images in ( A ), ( F ), ( G ), and ( H ) refer to the European and Mediterranean Plant Protection Organization (EPPO) global database ( https://gd.eppo.int/taxon/TOLCND/photos ), posted by Dr. Raffaele Giurato. Figures 1B, C were cited from Siskos et al ( 2022 ) without revision; reprint permission: https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10681-022-03081-1#rightslink ; Fig. 1D was cited from Venkataravanappa et al ( 2020 ) without revision, reprint permission: https://s100.copyright.com/CustomerAdmin/PLF.jsp?ref=e2f56b44-78b5-4777-b376-7ab99eb6039e ; Fig.…”