Genetic Diversity and Geographic Distribution of Cucurbit-Infecting Begomoviruses in the Philippines

Abstract

Cucurbits are important economic crops worldwide. However, the cucurbit leaf curl disease (CuLCD), caused by whitefly-transmitted begomoviruses constrains their production. In Southeast Asia, three major begomoviruses, Tomato leaf curl New Delhi virus (ToLCNDV), Squash leaf curl China virus (SLCCNV) and Squash leaf curl Philippines virus (SLCuPV) are associated with CuLCD. SLCuPV and SLCCNV were identified in Luzon, the Philippines. Here, the genetic diversity and geographic distribution of CuLCD-associated begomoviruses in the Philippines were studied based on 103 begomovirus detected out of 249 cucurbit samples collected from 60 locations throughout the country in 2018 and 2019. The presence of SLCCNV and SLCuPV throughout the Philippines were confirmed by begomovirus PCR detection and viral DNA sequence analysis. SLCuPV was determined as a predominant CuLCD-associated begomovirus and grouped into two strains. Interestingly, SLCCNV was detected in pumpkin and bottle gourd without associated viral DNA-B and mixed-infected with SLCuPV. Furthermore, the pathogenicity of selected isolates of SLCCNV and SLCuPV was confirmed. The results provide virus genetic diversity associated with CuLCD for further disease management, especially in developing the disease-resistant cultivars in the Philippines as well as Southeast Asia.

Investigation on disease incidence, distribution and diversity of Begomoviruses infecting cucurbitaceous crops in North Bengal, India

“…Cent percent crop loss in bitter gourd (Devi et al, 2022) has earlier been reported from India. Huge yield loss ranging from 70-100% in cucurbits due to Begomovirus have also been reported from different countries like Philippines (Neoh et al, 2023), Lebanon (Sobh et al, 2012) and Thailand (Charoenvilaisiri et al, 2020). isolates showed closer relationship with the Bangladesh isolates rather than Indian isolates or isolates from any other Asian countries (Fig.…”

Comparative Genome Analysis of Old World and New World TYLCV Reveals a Biasness toward Highly Variable Amino Acids in Coat Protein

“…Understanding genetic polymorphism in viruses is a fundamental need in order to elaborate on virus epidemiology and evolution [ 57 , 58 , 59 ]. Our previous analysis showed that there is a difference in SNP accumulation per cistron in the genome of OW and NW TYLCV isolates ( Figure 1 B,C).…”

Updates on hosts and distribution of pepper yellow leaf curl Indonesia virus and squash leaf curl China virus in Central Java Province, Indonesia

“…The current distribution of PepYLCIV and SLCCNV in Indonesia is presented in Figure 1. However, the real span of SLCCNV in the country needs to be well understood as the virus was reported to be widespread in China (Wu et al, 2020), India (Venkataravanappa et al, 2021b), and South East Asian countries such as Malaysia (Chen et al, 2021), Thailand (Piyatassee & Hongprayoon., 2021), and the Philippines (Neoh et al, 2023).…”