Management of zucchini yellow mosaic virus in cucumber through genetic and salicylic acid induced resistance

Zucchini yellow mosaic virus (zymv) is among the most destructive pathogen of vegetable crops and causing enormous losses specifically to cucumber. twenty varieties/ lines were evaluated for their resistance against zymv under field and controlled conditions. the disease severity data was calculated through disease rating scale and confirmed with elisa. scarcity of genetic resistance was observed in cucumber against zymv as only one variety beit-alpha was appeared to be resistant with 6 and 6.67% disease severity under controlled and field conditions,respectively. to mitigate the zymv infection,salicylic acid (sa) was exogenously applied at different concentration viz.,0.01,0.1,1 and 10mm for the induction of resistance in cucumber plants. the resultant increase in the phenolic and protein contents was estimated whereas virus concentrations were determined by elisa. the exogenous application of sa significantly increased the phenolic and protein contents as compared to control. virus multiplication appeared to be inhibited at 10mm concentration of sa. this study showed that exogenously applied sa could offer a good source for the management of zymv by inducing resistance in cucumber. © 2016,university of agriculture. all rights reserved.