Dnab Amplification Confirmed Slcuv Infection of Zucchini Squash Exhibiting Squash Leaf Curl Disease in Iraq

Abstract

The study was aimed at the characterization of a leaf curl disease on zucchini squash based on molecular approaches. Leaf samples were collected from symptomatic plants in zucchini squash growing area at Baghdad. Total DNA was extracted from collected samples using commercial DNA extraction kit.ٍ PCR amplification was performed to screened extracted samples for begomovirus infection using Deng a begomovirus specific primer set. DNA fragment of expected size were sequenced and compared to equivalent Gen Bank sequences. Sequence analyses were performed using MEGA X and SDTv1.2 software packages. Sequence comparison confirmed the detection of Squash leaf curl virus (SLCuV), in symptomatic zucchini samples when shared 98-99 and 95-96% maximum nucleotide (nt) identities with coat protein CP gene (DNAA) and DNAB, respectively, from the Gen Bank. Neighbor joining (NJ) Phylogenetic analysis confirmed the relatedness when grouped virus sequences with the equivalent Gen Bank sequences based on partial sequences of CP gene and DNAB. SDT analysis confirmed species demarcation of Iraqi sequences at 99 and 97% identity with the SLCuV partial DNAA and DNAB sequencesm respectively from the Gen Bank. The high ( nt) identity suggests SLCuV may recently be introduced to Iraq and could be a serious threatening to squash cultivation