Mediterranean Agricultural Sciences, cilt.35, sa.2, ss.83-90, 2022 (Hakemli Dergi)
Pepper mild mottle virus (PMMoV) is a plant virus belonging to the Virgaviridae family; it
significantly reduces pepper yield production worldwide. The PMMoV is spread by
contaminated seeds and there is no chemical treatment available. Therefore, resistant pepper
varieties containing the L4 gene are recommended for the management of PMMoV. A
considerable amount of evidence suggests that the L4 gene confers resistance to PMMoV in
pepper. The aim of the project is to confirm the status of the L4 gene for resistance to PMMoV
in pepper varieties, several inoculations were performed on pepper plants containing L3, L4
resistant genes and susceptible pepper plants without the resistance genes. The L4 resistant
plants produced mottling, mosaic, leaf curl, stem necrosis symptoms in the tested pepper plants
but there was no amplicon observed with specific primers of PMMoV in RT-PCR analyses. To
determine if the L3 and L4 genes are controlling resistance to PMMoV, RT-PCR analyzes were
conducted using PMMoV and Tomato brown rugose fruit virus (ToBRFV) where both viruses
belong to the same family. The molecular studies revealed that the L4 gene controls resistance
mechanisms to PMMoV but it is not able to govern Tobamovirus, ToBRFV. We showed that
pepper plants harboring the L3 and L4 gene have the ability to precisely control the mechanism
of resistance to PMMoV compared to pepper plants carrying only the L3 gene. A complete
genome sequence of PMMoV was obtained and submitted to Genbank with MW523006
accessıon number in the NCBI system.