Identification of viruses infecting pumpkins (Cucurbita pepo L) in Yugoslavia

Abstract

This study was carried out in order to identify the major viruses infecting pumpkins (Cucurbita pepo)grown in Serbia. Leaf samples from virus-infected pumpkin plants were collected in mid-July 2001. Naked-seeded and hulled oil pumpkins, patty pan, zucchini and summer squash from three different locations were included (Table 1). Virus-infected plants showed different symptoms (Table 2 and Figures 1-4). Due to the great variability of the symptoms, the causal viruses could not be fully and precisely determined by visual examination only. The infected samples were tested by the biotest, as well as by two serological methods, ELISA and EBIA. Polyclonal antibodies raised against cucumber mosaic cucumovirus (CMV), zucchini yellow mosaic potyvirus (ZYMV), watermelon mosaic potyvirus 1 (WMV-1), watermelon mosaic potyvirus 2 (WMV-2) and squash mosaic comovirus (SqMV) were used. In each of the 50 collected samples one or two viruses were detected (Tables 3 and 4). The most prevalent viruses infecting pumpkins were ZYMV (62%) and CMV (58%). WMV-2 was extremely rare.