Poster Presentation Australasian Plant Pathology Society Conference 2025

Reevaluation of pepper (Capsicum spp.) germplasm for resistance to tomato spotted wilt virus (TSWV) (#112)

Hyeonseok Oh 1 , Young-Wang Na 1 , JungYoon Yi 1 , Nayoung Ro 1 , Ho-cheol Ko 1
  1. National Agrobiodiversity Center, National Institute of Agricultural Sciences, Rural Development Administration, Jeonju 54874, Republic of Korea

Tomato spotted wilt virus (TSWV), belonging to the genus Orthotospovirus, family Tospoviridae, is a significant disease that globally affects the yield of pepper (Capsicum spp.) worldwide. The management of TSWV in crop fields is difficult owing to the extensive host range (comprising more than 1,000 plant species) and effective transmission of the virus by multiple thrips species, especially Frankliniella occidentalis. Thus, intense efforts have been made to breed resistant cultivars against TSWV. For now, the single dominant gene Tsw in pepper has been used by breeders to produce resistant cultivars to TSWV. However, the emergence of TSWV resistance-breaking (RB) variants that overcome Tsw-mediated resistance in various countries necessitates the exploration of new resources for TSWV-RB variants resistance. In this study, 13 pepper germplasm, selected based on a disease incidence rate of 30% or lower from the bioassay of TSWV resistance in 414 pepper germplasm conserved by the National Agrobiodiversity Center, were re-evaluated for TSWV resistance after generation advancement. The screened germplasm included C. annuum, C. baccatum, C. chinense, C. frutescens and Capscicum sp.. These accessions comprised landraces and breeding lines collected from Korea, Hungary, Nepal, Mexico, and other countries. To evaluate the resistance against TSWV RB variant, sap infection of TSWV-YI was carried out on the top newly formed leaves of seedlings (n=12) that contained three to four true leaves and symptoms such as ringspot, mosaic and necrosis were observed over a 4-week period post-infection. Among the screened accessions, 5 accessions exhibited a 0-30% incidence rate. In addition, one accession had an incidence rate of 30-50%, and 7 accessions had a rate of 50-100%. The resources selected for resistance based on the bioassay will be transplanted into pots, and their growth and fruit traits will be assessed, after which seed collection will be carried out for further evaluation.

  1. Mensah, E. O., Oh, H., Song, J., & Baek, J. (2024). Exploring Imaging Techniques for Detecting Tomato Spotted Wilt Virus (TSWV) Infection in Pepper (Capsicum spp.) Germplasms. Plants, 13(23), 3447.
  2. Kwon, S. J., Cho, Y. E., Kwon, O. H., Kang, H. G., & Seo, J. K. (2021). Resistance-breaking tomato spotted wilt virus variant that recently occurred in pepper in South Korea is a genetic reassortant. Plant Disease, 105(10), 2771-2775.
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