Identification of Papaya Ringspot Potyvirus type W infecting squash in Korea

A flexuous rod-shaped virus was isolated from Cucurbita pepo leaves showing green mosaic and puckering symptoms at Anseong, Korea. Based on the biological tests, electron microscopy, and reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR), the isolate was identified as Papaya ringspot virus type Watermelon (PRSV-W). In the biological test, host range of PRSV-W was limited in the families Cucurbitaceae and Chenopodiaceae. Most susceptible cucurbit species, such as Cucurmis lanatus, Cucurmis sativus, Cucurbita pepo, and Citrullus lanatus, responded to mechanical inoculation by PRSV-W that induce green mosaic, malformation, puckering, and narrow laminae. The local lesion symptoms were produced on the inoculated leaves of Chenopodium maranticolor and C. quinoa PRSV specific primers which amplifies the part of the coat protein (CP) genes, generated a 648 bp product from 6 isolates of PRSV-W, but no amplification had been detected in other viruses including CMV, CGMMV, KGMMV, ZYMV and WMV. In electron microscopy, PRSV particles were flexuous, approximately 780 nm in length and 12 nm in width. PRSV-W is one of the worldwide viruses which has the great economic importance in cucumber, melon, squash, watermelon, and other cultivated cucurbits with ZYMV and WMV. This is the first report of PRSV-W on cucurbits in Korea.