Occurrence of pepper mild mottle virus in greenhouse-grown pepper (Capsicum annuum L.) in the West Mediterranean region of Turkey

Abstract

Severe systemic viral symptoms were observed on the leaves of infected pepper (Capsicum annuum L.) plants cultivated in Antalya located in the Mediterranean coast of Turkey, in 2008. The symptoms on the diseased pepper plants included, mosaic, mottle, chlorosis coupled with stunting, chlorotic spots, distortion of the leaves and fruits. Using Pepper mild mottle tobamovirus (PMMoV) specific polyclonal antisera, PMMoV was detected in symptomatic pepper plants by double antibody sandwich-enzyme linked immunosorbent assay (DAS-ELISA). Disease occurrence (the percentage of plants infected) of up to 30% was estimated in the region outbreaks. It was observed that, symptomatic pepper samples collected from Antalya province were infected with PMMoV (47.14%) according to the results of the study.