The X-ray crystal structure of Cowpea chlorotic mottle bromovirus (CCMV) revealed a unique tubular structure formed by the interaction of the N-termini from six coat protein subunits at each three-fold axis of the assembled virion. This structure, termed the beta-hexamer, consists of six short beta-strands. The beta-hexamer was postulated to play a critical role in the assembly and stability of...

The growth of watermelon is often threatened by Fusarium oxysporum f. sp. niveum (Fon) in successively monocultured soil, which results in economic loss. The objective of this study was to investigate the effect of D123 wheat as a companion crop on soil enzyme activities, microbial biomass and microbial communities in the rhizosphere of watermelon and to explore the relationship between the eff...

In vitro assembly of tobacco mosaic virus (TMV) from its constituent RNA and protein occurs in two steps: formation of the initial complex by interaction of the 5'-end of TMV-RNA with 20S protein aggregate, and growth of the helical rod by sequential addition of protein subunits.Such a process was also observed in the assembly of cucumber green mottle mosaic virus, which is also a rodshaped vir...

Plants including pepper, red kidney bean, squash, string bean and tomato, as well as weeds with viral symptoms were collected from five districts in Belize over a three year period with the aim of determining the diversity of the begomoviruses present. Sixty five percent of the samples screened via DNA hybridization produced signals indicative of begomovirus infection. Subsequent PCR amplificat...

Carnation vein mottle virus (CarVMV) was isolated from glasshouse-grown Dianthus caryophyllus L. originating from Split. The same virus was obtained also from D. caryophyl­ lus, D. carthusianorum L. and D. barbatus L. which were grown in the open in Zagreb and the surroundings. The virus was identified on the basis of host plants, non-persi­ stent mode of transmission by M yzus persicae Sulz. a...

Potyviruses are one of the most destructive viral pathogens of Solanaceae plants. In Capsicum annuum landrace CM334, a broad-spectrum gene, Pvr4 is known to be involved in resistance against multiple potyviruses, including Pepper mottle virus (PepMoV), Pepper severe mosaic virus (PepSMV), and Potato virus Y (PVY). However, a potyvirus avirulence factor against Pvr4 has not been identified. To i...

Backtrap mottle is a common printing defect that is difficult to correct. A good understanding of the mechanisms that leads to backtrap mottle is still lacking in the literature. A confocal laser scanning microscopy (CLSM) is used to evaluate samples that had different tendencies towards backtrap mottle. The coating structure is observed by staining the coating with a fluorescence dye. The fina...

Continuous cropping of watermelon (Citrullus lanatus L.) can lead to reduced yield and quality. We aimed to determine the effects of cattle manure addition and rotation with green garlic to improve yield and reduce disease incidence in watermelon and to examine the effects on the biological and chemical characteristics of the soil. Field experiments were performed during 2012-2014 on land previ...

To investigate the detection of watermelon seeds exterior quality, a machine vision system based on least square support vector machine was developed. Appearance characteristics of watermelon seeds included area, perimeter, roughness, minimum enclosing rectangle and solidity were calculated by image analysis after image preprocess. The broken seeds, normal seeds and high-quality seeds were dist...