Detection of Some Virus Diseases of Edible Seed Squash (Cucurbita pepo L.) in Nevşehir Province, Turkey

Abstract

Squash is a member of Cucurbitaceae family. It is grown for fresh consuming and its seeds are used as a snack in Turkey like some Mediterranean countries and Germany, Hungary, Austria and China. Cucurbita pepo L. is mostly used for cultivating squash seeds in Turkey. Also, a small amount of seeds obtain from Cucurbita moschata Duch (Butternut squash or pumpkin). Virus diseases are one of the most destructive diseases on squash which is grown for seeds in Nevsehir province. In this study, it was aimed to determine the virus infections in major squash growing areas in Nevsehir province. Totally 134 plant samples with common virus symptoms like mosaic, curling, blistering, mottling, distortion, shoestring, stunting and vine decline were collected from squash plants during 2018. In this study. Double-Antibody Sandwich Enzyme-Linked Immunosorbent Assay (DAS-ELISA) method is used for identifying the virus infections on the plant samples. According to the results of the DAS-ELISA, 97.76 % of plant samples were infected with Zucchini yellow mosaic potyvirus (ZYMV), Watermelon mosaic potyvirus-2 (WMV), Cucurbit aphid borne yellow virus (CABYV), Cucumber mosaic cucumovirus (CMV), Papaya ringspot potyvirus -watermelon strain (PRSV-W) and Squash mosaic comovirus (SqMV). WMV was predominant in the research area with the ratio of 89.55 %. ZYMV was the second important virus disease in the surveyed area and it was detected on the samples at the ratio of 57.46 %. Also, mixed infections of those virus infections were detected commonly in squash. Especially, ZYMV+WMV (40.29 %) and WMV+ZYMV+PRSV-W (8.20 %) mixed infections were common.