Pepper Mottle Virus - Symptoms and Diagnosis

Symptoms and Diagnosis

Symptoms of PepMoV on pepper include dark green vein banding, mottle/mosaic, puckered or crinkled leaves, and misshapen fruit. Plants infected early in the growing season can be stunted and the virus can decrease yield significantly. (See pictures of symptoms)

Surveys have shown that PepMoV can often occur in mixed infections with TEV and/or PVY so a technique such as ELISA must be used to differentiate these three virus in pepper. Antiserum is available for all three potyviruses, as are primers for PCR tests and sequencing.

Interestingly PepMoV makes two types of inclusions in infected cells, the typical cylindrical inclusions (CI) and an amorphous inclusion (AI). Thus leaf strips stained with the protein stain, OG, and the nucleic acid stain, AA, can be used to identify this virus in pepper. The CI only stains in OG while the AI stains in both stains.

Symptoms and Inclusions of PepMoV in Capsicum annum