Some Virus Diseases of Edible Seed Squash (Cucurbita pepo L.) in Aksaray Province, Turkey

Cucurbits (the Cucurbitaceae family) consist of 119 genera and 825 species and are cultivated worldwide, especially in tropical and subtropical regions. Squash (Cucurbita pepo L.), a member of this family, is one of the most cultivated and important vegetable species worldwide. As well as, squash is grown for fresh consuming; its seeds are used as a snack in some Mediterranean countries, Austria, Germany, China and Hungary like in Turkey. One of the most destructive diseases on seed squash is virus diseases in Aksaray province. In this study, it was aimed to determine the virus infections in main squash planting areas in Aksaray. For that purpose, totally 153 plant samples which showing widespread virus symptoms such as curling, mosaic, blistering, mottling, shoe-string, distortion, and stunting were collected from seed squash plants in 2014 and tested by DAS-ELISA method. According to the results of the DAS-ELISA 84.96 % of the samples were infected with Cucumber mosaic cucumovirus (CMV), Papaya ring spot potyvirus - watermelon strain (PRSV-W), Zucchini yellow mosaic potyvirus (ZYMV), Squash mosaic comovirus (SqMV) and Watermelon mosaic potyvirus - 2 (WMV-2). The prevalent virus was ZYMV with the ratio of 66.01 % and followed by WMV-2 with 57.51 %. Besides, double and multiple virus infections were determined commonly in the samples such as, ZYMV+WMV-2, ZYMV+CMV, WMV-2+CMV, ZYMV+SqMV, ZYMV+WMV-2+PRSV-W, and ZYMV+WMV-2+SqMV. Especially, ZYMV+WMV-2 mixed infections were the most common. The infection of Cucumber green mottle mosaic tobamovirus (CGMMV) wasn’t determined in the survey area