Chlorotic Curly Stunt: A Severe Begomovirus Disease of Bottle Gourd in Northern India

Abstract

Bottle gourd (Lagenaria siceraria) an important vegetable crop in India was observed to be affected by a chlorotic curly stunt disease (CCSD) during [2003][2004][2005][2006] in the vegetable growing areas of Delhi and adjoining state of Haryana. The affected plants are severely stunted and bear very small chlorotic and mildly curled leaves. Incidence of the disease varied from 4.7 to 36%. The disease could be easily transmitted by whitefly, Bemisia tabaci but not by sap. The causal virus was found to be a Begomovirus on the basis of whitefly transmission and sequence identity of putative coat protein (CP) and replication initiator protein (Rep) genes. The virus was transmitted to Cucumis sativus, Luffa acutangula, L. cylndrica, Lycopersicon esculentum, Nicotiana tabacum and Praecitrullus fistulosus but not to Citrullus lunatus, Cucumis melo, Cucurbita moschata and Vigna unguiculata. The N-terminal 60 amino acids of CP of the virus had 100% sequence identity with all the isolates of Tomato leaf curl New Delhi virus (ToLCNDV) and two isolates of Squash leaf curl China virus (SLCCV). The full length amino acid sequence of the CP and Rep genes had 100% similarity with ToLCNDVSvr and -Luffa isolates. The phylogenetic analysis showed that the virus associated with CCSD of bottle gourd belongs to ToLCNDV cluster of the begomoviruses. This is the first record of emergence of a Begomovirus associated severe disease in bottle gourd in India.

Molecular Evidence for Occurrence of Tomato leaf curl New Delhi virus in Ash Gourd (Benincasa hispida) Germplasm Showing a Severe Yellow Stunt Disease in India

“…It was reported for the first time in India from tomato and further its infectivity study demonstrated that both DNA-A and DNA-B are essential for symptom development [10]. ToLCNDV is known to infect tomato in India since nearly two decades, but during the last one decade, its host range has increased enormously to various crops such as potato [21], papaya [12], eggplant [11] okra [23] and several cucurbitaceous vegetables like bottle gourd, bitter gourd, cucumber, ivy gourd, long melon, pumpkin, ridge gourd and watermelon in northern India and chayote in north-western India [7,16,17,20]. In Pakistan, besides tomato, ToLCNDV was also reported on crops like chilli [5], bitter gourd [18], and on weed Eclipta prostrata [3].…”

Detection and characterization of tomato leaf curl New Delhi virus association with mosaic disease of ivy gourd (Coccinia grandis (L.) Voigt) in North India

“…Iterons are recognition sites for sequence-specific binding of the cognate REP protein [32]. Depending on the viral species, modifications with respect to sequence, size or number of iterons, or even a point mutation in these motifs can adversely affect Rep binding, both in vivo and in vitro [33,34]. We failed to detect the association of betasatellites and alphasatellites, suggesting that mosaic disease in ivy gourd is caused by an Old World begomovirus with bipartite genomes.…”

Molecular Characterization of Begomovirus on Cucumber in Java

“…During field surveys in several cucumber cultivation areas in Java, we found varying viruslike symptoms on cucumbers such as yellow mosaic with leaf malformation, leaf chlorosis, upward curling of the leaf edges, yellowing with vein banding, leaf blister, and stunting (Figure 1). Previously, those types of symptoms were reported on Cucurbitaceae in India, Indonesia and Sri Lanka (Tiwari et al, 2010;Haerunisa et al, 2016;Sohrab et al, 2013).…”