Bottlegourd to the rescue

Zucchini yellow mosaic virus (ZYMV) does not, alas, restrict itself to zucchini, or even courgettes. It attacks most cucurbits, including cucumbers, melons, pumpkins, squash, bottlegourds and watermelons. One of those, however, the bottlegourd Lagenaria siceraria may also hold the antidote to ZYMV. Scientists at the Agricultural Research Service of the USDA grew seeds of 190 different accessions from a USDA genebank and inoculated the seedlings with virus.

To their surprise, 36 accessions of the 190 screened—33 from India alone—were completely resistant to ZYMV infection, and another 64 accessions were partially resistant. They also found that ZYMV resistance is heritable in crosses between different bottlegourd accessions, enabling the development of bottlegourd varieties with enhanced virus resistance.

Breeding resistance from Lagenaria into other cucurbits may be difficult, although if they can isolate the gene(s) responsible other options become possible. And even they may not be needed. Growers can graft watermelons, for example, onto bottlegourd rootstocks and benefit from the resistance that way.

Wl020 p.s. I shouldn’t get snitty, of course, but Wikipedia’s entry on bottlegourd in China is bizarre in the extreme. I’m not going to wonder what a “remedy for health” is, though it sounds to me a lot like a disease. I am going to wonder why there is absolutely no mention of the presence absolutely everywhere of a jillion small bottlegourds as good luck charms. The Buddha used one to carry “life’s essentials”.

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