Cucumber mosaic virus (CMV) is one of the most common plant viruses, causing yellow mottling, distorted leaves and stunted growth in a wide range of garden plants, not just cucumbers.
Cucumber mosaic virus (CMV) is one of the most common plant viruses and causes a wide range of symptoms, especially yellow mottling, distortion and stunting. Expect damage whenever susceptible plants are growing strongly in spring and summer.
Apart from cucumbers and other cucurbits, CMV also attacks spinach, lettuce and celery and many flowers, especially lilies, delphiniums, primulas and daphnes.
For more on how this virus is transmitted, see the Biology section below.
You may see the following symptoms:
There are no chemical controls available to control virues. The use of insecticides to reduce aphid transmission is not practical.
Plant viruses are extremely minute infectious particles consisting of a protein coat and a core of nucleic acid. They have no means of self-dispersal, but rely on various vectors (including humans) to transmit them from infected to healthy plants. Once viruses penetrate into the plant cells they take over the cells’ nucleic acid and protein synthesis systems and ‘hijack’ them to produce more virus.
Viruses are frequently transmitted through propagated material but, depending on the virus, can also be transmitted via insect or mite vectors, pollen, mechanical transfer via contaminated hands and tools, or nematode vectors in the soil. Some viruses can be transmitted via seed, but generally these are a minority and therefore seed propagation is often a useful way to ensure virus free plant material.
CMV is vectored by several aphid species which feed on a broad range of plants and this contributes to spread of CMV to the very wide host range of this virus.
The ‘cucumber’ in its name only reflects the fact that cucumber happened to be the plant from which it was first described. In fact, its host range is extremely wide among vegetables, flowers and some weeds, though fruit crops are rarely attacked. In some weeds the virus produces no symptoms, but these weeds can still act as a source of infection.
CMV is occasionally transmitted through seed in around 20 plant species.
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