First Report of Cucurbit Leaf Crumple Virus Infecting Three Cucurbit Crops in South Carolina

Abstract

Virus-like symptoms of curled and crumpled leaves, bright yellow chlorosis, and marginal leaf necrosis typical of begomovirus infection were observed on watermelon, summer squash, and muskmelon in three counties in South Carolina in August 2017. Genus-specific primers for begomovirus-A and begomovirus-B components produced amplicons of the expected sizes. Sanger sequencing of amplicons from both A and B components and BLASTn analysis revealed a high nucleotide sequence identity in seven watermelon samples from Beaufort and Charleston counties and five muskmelon samples from Charleston County with cucurbit leaf crumple virus.