美国农业部网10月3日消息，美国农业研究局植物病理学家和
遗传学家发现葫芦基因具有抑制感染瓜类作物-葫芦黄色花叶病毒（zymv）的能力。科学家们经过西瓜嫁接葫芦的实验，发现葫芦基因可以在不同的十字花科中传导，嫁接了葫芦基因的西瓜抗葫芦黄色花叶病毒（zymv）的能力大大增强。这一抑制瓜类病毒的环保方法不仅控制了西瓜病原菌和害虫的侵入，而且提高了果树产量和质量，目前正在一些西瓜种植户中推广。（国际情报研究室译）
【原文】
Bottlegourd Gene May Curb Cucurbit Virus
By Ann Perry
October 3, 2007
Bottlegourds have been used around the world for food, bottles, bowls, spoons, musical instruments and even bird houses. Now a "genetic" genie in the versatile bottlegourd may be used to reduce virus infestation in watermelons.
Agricultural Research Service (ARS) plant pathologist Kai-Shu Ling and geneticist Amnon Levi conduct research on plant diseases at the U.S. Vegetable Laboratory in Charleston, S.C. They are looking for tools to fight zucchini yellow mosaic virus (ZYMV), which infects cucurbit crops: cucumbers, melons, pumpkins, squash, bottlegourds and watermelons.
Throughout North America, several viruses transmitted by insects, including ZYMV, are especially troublesome to watermelons and other cucurbit crops. Producers are anxious to find new ways of suppressing these viruses. Previous research by other scientists suggested that bottlegourd (Lagenaria siceraria) had some genetic resistance to ZYMV, but this research needed followup.
Ling and Levi obtained seeds for 190 bottlegourd accessions that were collected from different parts of the world and kept at the ARS Plant Genetic Resources Conservation Unit in Griffin, Ga. They raised the seeds in their Charleston greenhouses, and then inoculated the bottlegourd plants with ZYMV and evaluated how well they resisted the 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.
Popular watermelon cultivars could be grafted onto bottlegourd rootstocks with enhanced resistance to bolster the watermelons’ ability to resist ZYMV. Some watermelon growers have already been experimenting with grafting watermelon on bottlegourd rootstocks to control soilborne diseases and to enhance fruit production and quality.
Ling and Levi’s success in identifying disease-resistant bottlegourd accessions will further efforts to find environmentally friendly ways of controlling watermelon pathogens and pests. For producers of a U.S. commodity worth $435 million in 2006, that would be a wish come true.
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