• The Korean Journal of Pesticide Science
• /
• v.13 no.4
• /
• pp.298-308
• /
• 2009

A flexuous rod-shaped virus was isolated from Cucurbita pepo leaves showing as green mosaic and puckering symptoms at Anseong, Korea. Based on the biological analysis, electron microscopy, and reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR), the virus isolate was identified as Papaya ringspot virus type watermelon (PRSV-W). From biological analysis, the host range of PRSV-W was limited to the families Cucurbitaceae and Chenopodiaceae. Most susceptible cucurbit species, such as Cucumis lanatus, Cucumis sativus, Cucurbita pepo, and Citrullus lanatus, showed symptoms of green mosaic, malformation, puckering, and narrow laminae by infection with PRSV-W. The local lesion were showed on the inoculated leaves of both Chenopodium amaranticolor and C. quinoa. Field survey of PRSV, Watermelon mosaic virus (WMV) and Zucchini yellow mosaic virus (ZYMV), three major viruses infecting cucurbit, was done during 2001 to 2003 on 173 commercial cucurbit cultivating fields distributed over the three regions of Gyeonggi, Gyeongbuk and Jeonnam Provinces where cucurbits are grown in different environmental conditions and cropping patterns. Typical viral symptoms were observed from 107 cultivating fields, and all three kinds of potyviruses were detected from 206 samples out of the 235 samples using RT-PCR. Watermelon mosaic virus (WMV) and Zucchini yellow mosaic virus (ZYMV) are the most widely distributed viruses in outdoor and retarding-culture fields, at an infection rating of 48 and 33 percents, respectively. PRSV was detected from 12 percent of 235 samples. The nucleotide and amino acid sequences of coat proteins (CP) of eight PRSV isolates, collected from several areas including Anseong, were determined and sequenced heterogeneity among the isolates was performed. The CP gene of PRSV showed 88.6~97.3 percent homology in nucleotide sequences and 95.1~99.3 percent homology in amino acid sequences with other PRSV isolates worldwide. The phylogenetic analysis indicated that the Korean PRSV isolates belong to the southern-east Asian cluster.