Thursday 31 December 2015

What effects does this murderer leave to the victim?

What CMV provoques on the victim after having commited his job is a disease called Cucumber mosaic virus, which is present worldwide and affects a wide viriety of plants, aproximately 190 different ones' that include cucumber,  tomatoes, pumpkins, carrots, spinachs, beans, cellery,... and not only affect vegetables, but flower plants as begonias, tulips, dahlias, etc.


Image 3.1. Image showing
clearly the mottling leaves.


What means suffering the damage of Cucumber mosaic virus?

Having the disease implicates a change in the physical structure based on a modification between hosts. This can be simply external, what means that only change it appearance, for example, mottled leaves, and circular spots. 


Image 3.2. Image showing
dwarfism effects of CMV.



However, what farmers and scientists are really worried about, is the harmful modifyings that the plant can suffer from the CMV, and this changes goes from dwarfism and distortions of the fruit and flower, going through elongation and narrowing of the leaves, and finishing with the stunting of the fruits (has no comercial value). This effects has a big repercution on economy, thus can make a farmer being bankrupt.



But what si more worring is the fact that the effects of the murderer in the victim are completely different depending on the specimen affected, and also the season time is being infected, as if it happens in an early season, the effects are devastators and kills the plant, transforming it into a vegetable unmarketable, but if instead it happens in an older season, sympthoms doesn't expresses so agressively.

Image 3.5. Effects on
tulipas' flowers of CMV.
Image 3.3. Effects of
CMV in red pepper.

Image 3.4. Distortion effects
of CMV in a Curcubita pepo
crop.


Unforunately, there is no tratment to solve the infection of the murderer, neither resistant plants to this Bromoviridae family virus. Thus, we can only applicate preventive measures.


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