Incidence and Occurrence Pattern of Viruses on Peppers Growing in Fields in Korea

Abstract

Field surveys to investigate the incidence and occurrence pattern of viruses in red pepper were conducted during 2015-2016 in Korea. A total of 424 samples in 2015 and 368 samples in 2016 were collected based on selection of plants showing symptoms from farmer’s field from every June to September. Reverse transcription-Polymerase chain reaction was used to test all samples for the presence of one or more of following viruses: Cucumber mosaic virus (CMV), Broad bean wilt virus 2 (BBWV2), Tomato spotted wilt virus (TSWV), Beet western yellows virus (BWYV), Pepper mottle virus (PepMoV), Potato virus Y (PVY) and Pepper mild mottle virus (PMMoV). The average disease incidence was 91.7% in 2015 and 98% in 2016 and the all seven viruses were found although there were different kinds of regions. The percent virus incidence in collected samples during 2015 was as follows: CMV, 73.8%; BBWV2, 68.3%; BWYV, 46.9%; PMMoV, 14.6%; TSWV, 12.7%; PepMoV, 6.6% and PVY, 3.3%. For 2016, incidence was as follows: CMV, 73.3%; BBWV2, 71.4%; BWYV, 34.7%; TSWV, 27.9%, PMMoV, 19.2%; PepMoV, 13.5% and PVY, 3.5%. Mixed infections were prevalent over single infections and infection rate was 83% and 86.7% in 2015 and 2016, respectively.