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The cucurbit vegetable chieh-qua (Benincasa hispida var. chieh-qua How) is an important crop in South China and southeast Asian countries. Viral diseases cause substantial loss of chieh-qua yield. To identify the viruses that affect chieh-qua in China, ribosomal RNA-depleted total RNA sequencing was performed using chieh-qua leaf samples with typical viral symptoms. The virome of chieh-qua comprises four known viruses (melon yellow spot virus (MYSV), cucurbit chlorotic yellows virus (CCYV), papaya ringspot virus (PRSV) and watermelon silver mottle virus (WSMoV) and two novel viruses: cucurbit chlorotic virus (CuCV) in the genus Crinivirus and chieh-qua endornavirus (CqEV) in the genus Alphaendornavirus. The complete genomes of the two novel viruses in chieh-qua and three other isolates of CuCV in pumpkin, watermelon and cucumber were determined and the recombination signals of pumpkin and watermelon isolates of CuCV were detected. A reverse transcriptase PCR indicated that the dominant viruses of chieh-qua in Hainan are MYSV (66.67%) and CCYV (55.56%), followed by CuCV (27.41%), WSMoV (7.41%), cucumber mosaic virus (8.15%), zucchini yellow mosaic virus (6.67%), PRSV (6.67%) and CqEV (35.56%). Our findings support diagnostic and prevalence studies of viruses infecting chieh-qua in China, enabling sustainable control strategies for cucurbit viruses worldwide. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A disease on parthenium weed ( Parthenium hysterophorus L.) was observed in June 2008 in Danzhou of Hainan Province. Infected weeds showed phytoplasma-like associated symptoms such as severe stunting, excessive proliferation of shoots, inflorescence-clustering, green petal, small leaves and witches'-broom. The original cause of phytoplasma was further confirmed by polymerase chain reaction (PCR). PCR products of 1.8 kb were obtained using the universal primers pair (P1/P7) designed to amplify the entire 16S rDNA and the 16/23S intergenic spacer region in a direct PCR assay. The primers pair R16F2n/R2 was used to amplify a PCR product of 1.2 kb. Restriction fragment length polymorphism (RFLP) was used to analyze the partial 16S rDNA sequences (1.2 kb) of all phytoplasma DNA digested with five endonucleases ( Kpn I, Hpa II, Taq I, Rsa I, EcoR I). The RFLP patterns of the strain were found to be identical with that of the reference peanut witches'-broom phytoplasma. Based on the RFLP data, it is suggested that the phytoplasma strain belongs to subgroup 16SrII-A. This is the first demonstration of a 16SrII-A group phytoplasma associated with parthenium weed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In July 2008, Stylosanthes guianensis with witches'-broom symptoms and Stylosanthes capitata with yellows symptoms were observed in Hainan Province, China. From the symptomatic S. guianensis, the phytoplasma-specific 16S rRNA gene fragment of 1.4 kb was amplified by a direct PCR, and a fragment of 16S rRNA gene of 1.2 kb was obtained from the symptomatic Stylosanthes capitata by a nested PCR. Sequencing results and NCBI BLASTn analysis showed that the two phytoplasmas belonged to group 16SrII. Polygenetic analysis and virtual RFLP classified the two phytoplasmas into subgroup 16SrII-A. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]