Seed Transmission of Columnea latent viroid in cucumber

Abstract

Columnea latent viroid (CLVd) seed transmission was studied in 6 cucumber varieties by inoculating CLVd on 5 seedlings of each variety. Inoculated plants were confirmed the CLVd-infection by Reverse transcription – polymerase chain reaction (RT – PCR) technique. Cucurbit seeds were harvested from 30-35 days mature fruits after cross pollination of the infected plants. The cucurbit seeds were determined for the presence of 370 bp DNA fragment of CLVd to confirm seed transmission. The results showed that 7 samples of 3 varieties were 0.19 – 1.77% seed transmission. All PCR products of the CLVd positive samples were sequenced and aligned with GenBank database for sequence homology. They were 367-369 nucleotides in size and 97-99% sequence similarity with CLVd isolates. The results indicate that CLVd was seed transmission in cucumber plants.