Sources of resistance to Watermelon Chlorotic Stunt Virus in melon

Watermelon Chlorotic Stunt Virus (WmCSV) is a bipartite geminivirus residing in the genus Begomovirus (family Geminiviridae) and is whitefly transmitted (Bemisia tabaci). WmCSV infects members of the Cucurbitaceae, and represents a considerable threat to melon and watermelon crops in Sudan, Yemen, and Iran. One hundred twenty-eight melon accessions, mostly collected from Sudan, were screened in the open-field in Sudan under severe whitefly inoculation pressure in order to identify sources of resistance to WmCSV. One WmCSV resistant line HSD 2445-005 selected from this first screening along with 22 new melon accessions were agro-inoculated with an infectious Sudanese clone of WmCSV. Ten accessions exhibited resistance to WmCSV infection upon agro-inoculation. Six of them were confirmed to have complete resistance to WmCSV through graft-inoculation as well as multiple field trials in Sudan. These lines include the Sudanese accession HSD 2445-005, the South African accession PI 282448, and three Indian accessions: 90625, PI 124112, and PI 414723. Resistant plants exhibited no disease symptoms, and virus DNA could not be detected by hybridization with a WmCSV-specific probe.