Prospección de potyvirus en un área suburbana de cultivo en La Habana, Cuba

The objective of this work was to determine the presence of potyviruses in associated horticultural species and weeds, in a suburban area destined to produce vegetables in Guanabacoa, Havana province. Samples of symptomatic pepper plants ( Capsicum annum L.), tomato plants ( Solanum lycopersicum L.), cauliflower ( Brassica oleracea var. capitata L.), and green bean ( Phaseolus vulgaris L. var. vulgaris ), were collected in the period 2017-2019. Additionally, 30 samples of asymptomatic weeds species associated with these crops were collected: Parthenium hysterophorus L., Senna alata L, Ocimum sanctum L., Bidens alba (L.) DC., Portulaca oleracea L., Euphorbia heterophylla L., Amaranthus albus L. and Digitaria sanguinalis L. (Scop.). RNA was extracted and analyzed by RT-PCR with the use of universal primers. The presence of Potyviruses was detected in 100 % in pepper, tomato and cauliflower. Green beans samples showed 22.2 %. Four of the weeds species harvested: P. oleracea , P. hysterophorus , S. alata , and E. heterophylla , were positive to Potyviruses . These results constitute the first molecular evidence of the presence in Cuba of Potyviruses in tomato, cauliflower and French bean crops, as well as in weed species P. oleracea , P. hysterophorus L., S. alata and E. heterophylla .