Molecular characterization of Criniviruess involved in the etiology of cucumber yellowing disease in Riyadh region, Saudi Arabia

During the growing seasons 2014 and 2015, 134 cucumber and 103 weed samples showing typical yellowing diseases symptoms accompanied by chlorotic spots and interveinal chlorosis were collected from Riyadh region, Saudi Arabia. For this reason, RT-PCR was conducted for detection of two criniviruses, Cucurbit chlorotic yellows virus (CCYV) and Cucurbit yellow stunting disorder virus (CYSDV) which are implicated in cucurbit yellows disease. Results showed the presence of CCYV and CYSDV in cucumber samples in 61.1% and 19.4%, respectively, whereas 9% of the plants were contained mixed infection. In addition, four weed species were identified, for the first time, as alternative hosts of CCYV; whereas CYSDV was reported only in Malva parviflora plants. Partial nucleotide sequencing analysis was conducted using 13 CCYV and five of CYSDV isolates originated from cucumber and wild hosts. Both viruses exhibited low genetic diversity; however, phylogenetic analysis clustered the obtained CYSDV isolates in a separated group, named the “Eastern subpopulation”, while CCYV isolates were classified into subgroups IIa and IIb, among other published sequences, forming a different evolutionary lineage from group I, which contained an isolate from Iran.