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ARS Home » Northeast Area » Washington, D.C. » National Arboretum » Floral and Nursery Plants Research » Research » Publications at this Location » Publication #176540
Title: ALLAMANDA MOSAIC CAUSED BY CUCUMBER MOSAIC VIRUS IN TAIWAN

Author
item CHEN, Y - NAT'L CHG HSG UNIV,TAIWAN
item YANG, C - NAT'L CHG HSG UNIV,TAIWAN
item Hsu, Hei Ti

Submitted to: Plant Disease
Publication Type: Peer Reviewed Journal
Publication Acceptance Date: 1/20/2005
Publication Date: 3/5/2005
Citation: Chen, Y.K., Yang, C.C., Hsu, H.T. 2005. Allamanda mosiac caused by cucumber mosaic virus in Taiwan. Plant Disease. 89:529.

Interpretive Summary: Cucumber mosaic virus (CMV) has a very broad natural host range. It infects over 800 species including cereal, forage, woody and herbaceous ornamental, vegetables, and fruit crops. The most common symptom incited by CMV is mosaic; however, severity of disease ranges from no obvious symptoms in some crops to death of the host species. A large number of strains exist in CMV. Control of diseases caused by CMV remains a major problem since the virus is widespread, can infect many species, and is efficiently and quickly spread by many species of aphids. This paper reports the first isolation of CMV from Allamanda in Taiwan as well as the molecular characterization of this isolate. The information will be useful to growers and nursery industries. The research is related to National Plant Health Program 301.

Technical Abstract: Allamanda (Allamanda carthatica L.; family Apocynaceae) is native to Brazil and is a very popular ornamental perennial shrub or vine in Taiwan. Plants showing severe mosaic, rugosity and leaf distortion symptoms on leaves are common in commercial nurseries and in private gardens. Examination of crude sap prepared from symptomatic leaves by electron microscopy revealed the presence of spherical viral particles with a diameter of about 28 nm. The virus was mechanically transmitted to indicator plants and induced symptoms similar to those incited by Cucumber mosaic virus (CMV). The virus caused local lesions on inoculated leaves of Chenopodium quinoa and C. amaranticolor and systemic mosaic in Cucumis sativus, Lycopersicon esculentum, Nicotiana benthamiana, N, glutinosa, N. rustica, and N. tabacum. On N. tabacum, necrotic ringspots developed on inoculated leaves followed by systemic mosaic. Tests of leaf sap extracted from naturally infected allamanda and inoculated indicator plants by ELISA were positive to rabbit antiserum prepared to CMV. Viral coat protein on Western blots reacted with CMV subgroup I specific monoclonal antibodies (2). Using primers specific to the 3'-half of CMV RNA 3 (1), amplicons of the expected size (1115 bp) were obtained in reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) using total RNA extracted from infected allamanda and N. benthamiana. The amplified fragment (EMBL accession number AJ871492) was cloned and sequenced. It encompasses the 3' part of the intergenic region of RNA 3 (158 nt), CP ORF (657 nt) and 3' NTR (300 nt) showing 91.8-98.9% and 71.4-72.8% nt identities to those of CMV isolates in subgroups I and II, respectively. Results of MspI-digested RFLP patterns of the RT-PCR fragment and the nucleotide sequence analysis indicate that the allamanda CMV is an isolate of CMV subgroup IB, which is predominant on the island. To our knowledge, CMV is the only reported virus that infects allamanda and was first detected in Brazil (3). This is the first report of CMV infection in allamanda plants occurring in Taiwan.