Traditional Cultivation Practices May Efficiently Prevent the Virus Spread in Susceptible Crops: A Case Study of Turnip Mosaic Virus in Ukraine

Abstract

Turnip mosaic virus (TuMV) is a member of the largest Potyviridae family of plantviruses. For domesticated Brassica plants, TuMV is considered one of the mostdamaging and economically important viruses. TuMV is mainly transmitted bymany aphid species non-persistently as well as mechanically from plant to plant.TuMV probably occurs worldwide and has been found in both temperate andsubtropical regions of Africa, Asia, Europe, Oceania and North and SouthAmerica. In Europe, TuMV was reported from the UK, Spain, Italy, Greece,Germany, The Netherlands, Czech Republic, Hungary, Bulgaria, Poland, andRussia. Despite Ukraine geographical location and wide cultivation of differentBrassica crops for centuries, it has been only recently that the authors haveregistered TuMV in this country. In this study, isolates of TuMV were collected inUkraine from naturally infected host plants, all from Brassicaceae family. For thefirst time, TuMV was shown to be widespread in agricultural and urban regions inUkraine where it naturally infects crops, weeds and introduced species withinfection rate reaching 50%. Also, we show that urban locations and concomitantweed plants are potent factors of virus epidemiology favoring extremely high virusincidence level of 89% in susceptible hosts. Importantly, we underpin thesignificance of trivial cultivation practices (crop rotation and eradication ofdiseased plants) as preventive measures for the control of damaging pathogen ofbrassicas, allowing for 3 times less TuMV incidence.