First report of Melon aphid-borne yellows virus infecting watermelon in Korea

Watermelon (Citrullus lanatus) is one of the most popular crops in Korea, with over 100 million units produced annually. As watermelon cultivation increases, the damage caused by plant viruses in watermelon farms is also increasing. In July 2020, some watermelons cultivated on farms in Uiryeong showed typical viral symptoms, such as yellowing and necrosis. In previous studies, two plant viruses, cucurbit aphid-borne yellows virus (CABYV) and cucurbit chlorotic yellows virus (CCYV), have been reported as causal agents of yellowing disease in the cucurbitaceae plant in Korea. To identify the virus(es) associated with the symptomatic watermelon plants, 11 samples were collected. Total RNA was extracted from each sample using the Plant RNA Prep kit (Biocube System, Gwacheon, Korea). RT-PCR was performed using primer sets specific to CABYV and CCYV to detect each virus (Kwak et al. 2018, Wintermantel et al. 2019). CABYV was detected in one sample, and CCYV was detected in 8 samples. Every sample presented similar yellowing symptoms; however, neither virus was detected in the remaining two samples. To investigate unknown viruses, a transcriptome library was constructed using total RNA of the watermelons and sequenced using a NovaSeq 6000 sequencer (Illumina, San Diego, CA). The reads were de novo assembled and annotated using the KEGG virus genome database with the NCBI BLAST utility. All procedures of next generation sequencing were performed by Macrogen (Seoul, Korea). Three large viral contigs were identified, and additional BLAST analyses for nucleotides (nt) and proteins indicated that they were CABYV, CCYV, and melon aphid-borne yellows virus (MAYBV). A total of 247,198 reads were mapped to reference MABYV sequence (GenBank Accession Number NC_010809), and the sequencing depth was 6,575X. The contig (MW505927) had a size of 5,677 nt and showed 100% coverage and 96% identity with known complete MABYV sequences (JQ700307 and EU000534). To confirm the presence of MABYV, RT-PCR was performed using specific primer sets targeting MABYV (MABYV-262-F, 5ʹ-GAACCGTCGACGCACTTCAAAGAGTA-3ʹ and Polero-uni-R, 5ʹ-GATYTTATAYTCATGGTAGGCCTTGAG-3ʹ; Knierim et al. 2010). The expected size of 262 bp was obtained from 5 out of 11 samples, including the two samples mentioned above. MABYV belongs to the genus Polerovirus and has been reported in cucurbit crops in China, Taiwan, and Thailand (Xiang et al. 2008, Knierim et al. 2010, Cheewachaiwit et al. 2017). According to the farmer, outbreak of aphids had previously occurred and were controlled with pesticides. Since aphids are known to be vectors of poleroviruses, we surmise that the watermelons were infected with MABYV by the aphids at that time. To monitor the outbreak of MABYV, watermelon farms in Uiryeong will be continuously investigated. To our knowledge, this is the first report of MABYV in Korea.

Insecticidal effect of Bacillus pumilus PTB180 and Bacillus subtilis PTB185 used alone and in combination against the foxglove aphid and the melon aphid (Hemiptera: Aphididae)

The foxglove aphid, Aulacorthum solani (Kaltenbach) (Hemiptera: Aphididae), and the melon aphid, Aphis gossypii Glover (Hemiptera: Aphididae), are among the serious insect pests found in greenhouses. The efficacy of microbial control against these insects has been demonstrated and can be enhanced by the combination of different microbial agents. This study evaluated the efficacy of Bacillus pumilus Meyer and Gottheil PTB180 and Bacillus subtilis (Ehrenberg) Cohn PTB185, used alone and together, to control these two aphids both in the laboratory and in greenhouse on tomato, Solanum lycopersicum Linnaeus (Solanaceae), and cucumber, Cucumis sativus Linnaeus (Cucurbitaceae), plants. The results from the laboratory tests showed an increase in mortality induced by all biological treatments. In the greenhouse, all treatments induced mortality rates significantly higher than that of the control for A. solani. Similarly, all treatments performed better than the control against A. gossypii, significantly reducing its reproduction. Furthermore, we found no additive effects when mixing products nor negative interactions affecting survival for the bacteria investigated. These microorganisms therefore have potential for use in biological control.

Áfido del algodón Aphis gossypii / Áfido del algodón, ciclo de vida

The cotton or melon aphid is a serious pest of many horticultural crops in Florida. This Spanish language fact sheet aids in its identification.

Plant pathogen mediates rapid adaptation of insect to new host plant

The cotton-melon aphid, Aphis gossypii Glover, an extremely polyphagous pest insect, comprises of sympatric populations specialized on deferent host plants. The life history of A. gossypii infesting cucurbit crops remains elusive because oviparous aphids from overwintering hosts (often hibiscus) cannot colonize cucurbit crops. We verified that the hibiscus-specialized lineage (HI) suffered high mortality and gave birth to very few nymphs developing into yellow dwarfs when transferred to fresh cucumber because the HI lineage was unable to ingest phloem sap from fresh cucumber. However, the HI lineage ingested phloem sap successfully when cucumber leaves were pre-infected with Pseudoperonospora cubensis, a biotrophic phytopathogen, accompanied by significant fitness improvement. More surprisingly, the HI lineage with feeding experience on pre-infected cucumber for two generations performed as well as the cucumber-specialized lineage (CU) did on fresh cucumber, and inflicted typical damage symptom to healthy cucumber plant. This phytopathogen mediated host plant adaptation may be widespread in polyphagous aphids.