The reaction of summer- and autumn-maturing cauliflowers to infection by cauliflower mosaic and turnip mosaic viruses

Abstract

SummaryThe reaction of sixteen cultivars of summer- and autumn-maturing cauliflowers to infection by turnip mosaic (TuMV) and cauliflower mosaic (CaMV) viruses was assessed over two years. There was no correlation between symptoms in glasshouse grown plants and field grown plants for either virus. Healthy and infected plants were grown in the field at isolated sites to avoid cross-infection and the effect of sites was assessed by growing plants at duplicate sites. TuMV generally induced more severe symptoms than CaMV. Cultivars varied in their reaction to infection by CaMV or TuMV. Losses of up to 60% and 38% in terms of yield and 55% and 19% in terms of marketable heads were recorded for infection by TuMV and CaMV respectively. Virus infection also resulted in changes in harvest date of up to 10 days (CaMV) and 31 days (TuMV). However, the effects of virus infection on yield, marketability and time of maturity were confounded with large genotype by environment effects. The implications of this for breedi...