Abstract
Cucumber mosaic virus (CMV) and Chilli Veinal Mosaic Virus (CVMV) are among the most destructive viruses affecting chilli crop in Sri Lanka. Identification of resistant sources and combining them in to cultivated forms is essential in resistance breeding. Capsicum frutescens L. has been reported as a source of variation for many different traits including disease resistance to improve chilli (Capsicum annum L.). However, strong inter-specific hybridization barriers exist between them. In the present study, wide hybridization approach for introgressing C. frutescens L. genes into C. annuum L. was performed through genetic bridging using C. Chinense Jacq. as a bridge species. Diverse collection of 115 accessions from three cultivated species of C. annuum L. (28), C. Chinense Jacq. (63) and C. frutescens L. (24) was screened for CMV and CVMV resistance. Two C. frutescens L. accessions were resistant to both viruses and six C. Chinense Jacq. Accessions were resistant to CVMV. In Genetic bridge approach three way hybrids and double crosses were produced among these three species. The double crosses [(C. annuum L. x C.chinense) x (C. Chinense Jacq.x C. frutescens L.)] and [(C. Chinense Jacq.x C. annuum L.) x (C. Chinense Jacq. x C. frutescens L.)] were more successful than the three way crosses when considering the combining of C. frutescens L. traits into C. annuum L. and development of resistance to CMV and CVMV.
Highlights
Chilli and pepper (Capsicum annuum L.) are among the most important commercially-grown vegetable crops in the world
24 accessions/genotypes out of the 115 accessions used in the study, did not show virus-like symptoms typical to Cucumber mosaic virus (CMV) and/or Chilli Veinal Mosaic Virus (CVMV) (Table 2)
The results revealed that two C. frutescens genotypes were resistant to both viruses and six C. chinense genotypes were resistant to CVMV disease under naturally-infected conditions
Summary
Chilli and pepper (Capsicum annuum L.) are among the most important commercially-grown vegetable crops in the world. Being a heavy consumer and a producer of chilli, Sri Lanka has a huge potential to increase the production to meet its domestic requirements. Despite continuous efforts at various levels, productivity and production of chilli have not gained the momentum expected. One of the major problems for improving the yield of chilli is heavy infestations of pests and diseases, the virus diseases (Reddy et al 2014). Cucumber mosaic virus (CMV) has been described as one of the five most important viruses infecting vegetable species worldwide. In Capsicum spp., infection of CMV can cause severe systemic mosaic symptoms, leaf distortion and fruit lesions, thereby drastically reducing marketable yield (Rashid et al 2007). Control of CMV is a challenge as the virus is having a broad host range that includes many weeds species and is transmitted by a large number of aphid species (Ben Chaim et al, 2001; Xinqiu et al, 2012)
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