P-16. A severe outbreak of flexuous filamentous viruses infecting peppers in Maharashtra

Surveys conducted during January 2006- July 2007 of peppers (sweet and hot peppers) growing areas viz. Ahmednagar, Aurangabad, Baramati, Nasik, Kolhapur and Sholapur, cultivated under field and greenhouse conditions in Maharashtra for the natural occurrence of viruses and their incidence, revealed the presence of various types of symptoms viz. mosaic, mottling, vein banding, vein clearing, epinasty, upward curling, crinkling, puckering, filiformity, narrowing, ring spotting, necrosis, yellowing, browning, dark-green patches, rolling of margins, blistering, flecking, white patches, bunching, netting, tip elongation, line-pattern, distortion, etc. Infected plants were severely stunted and bore very few fruits exhibiting mosaic, streaks and severe deformation. Branches of some severely attacked plants showed green streaks and zig-zag appearance. A total of 245 samples (leaves) exhibiting above symptoms were collected. Based on host range, transmission (including insect vectors), serology (DAS-ELISA) and electron microscopy, the following Potyviruses were identified: potato virus Y (PVY), tobacco etch virus (TEV), pepper veinal mottle virus (PVMV), pepper vein banding virus (PVBV) and chilli veinal mottle virus (CVMV). All these viruses are readily transmitted by aphid vectors in a non-persistent manner. The virions were flexuous filamentous rods measuring 690–720 nm in length. The involvement of more than one virus was observed frequently in most of the samples, which correlated with severity of symptoms in the field samples. By ELISA, the incidence of PVY, TEV, PVMV, PVBV and CVMV was between 25–85, 15–50, 30–60, 10–45 and 25–56%, respectively in the affected samples. In this study we have tried to get an idea of the extent of the problem and its economic consequences in the affected area.