Last modified: 2022-08-22
Abstract
Begomovirus have been reported as the cause of yellow mosaic disease on Solanaceae, Cucurbitaceae, Leguminoceae, and several types of weeds. Begomovirus have wide range and cause serious economic impact on several plants. In 2021, yellow mosaic and leaf curl symptoms were observed in melon plants in several area in Bengkulu city and Bengkulu Tengah. The aim of this research is to do preliminary detection of Begomovirus infected melon plants in Bengkulu city based on polimerase chain reaction (PCR) using universal primers for Begomovirus. Further research was conducted to determine molecular characteristics of Begomovirus on melon plants in Bengkulu. Plant samples showing yellow mosaic and leafcurl symptoms were taken for virus detection using PCR (polymerase chain reaction) with universal primers SPG1 / SPG2 for Begomovirus that amplified transcriptional activator protein (TrAp) and replication-associated protein (Rep) sequences in the Begomovirus genome with a size of ± 912 bp. This confirmed that the yellow mosaic symptom on leaf samples from melon were positively proved to be infected by Begomovirus. The amplicon was sequenced followed by basic local alignment search tool analysis. It was revealed that the sequence had the highest homology (95.07%) to Squash Leaf Curl China Virus sequence of cucumber from Malaysia [accession number EF197940.7]. It proved that those yellow mosaic symptoms on melon in Bengkulu is associated with Squash Leaf Curl China Virus infection.