Biochemical responses of micronized CaCO3 on pepper (Capsicum annuum L.) plants infected with cucumber mosaic virus (Cucumber mosaic virus, cucumovirus)

Cucumber Mosaic Virus (CMV) is one of the most important viruses that cause economic losses in pepper plants in production areas. Pepper (Capsicum annum) is exposed to many abiotic and biotic stress factors during the growing period. Since the virus, which is one of the biotic stress factors, is transmitted from plant to plant by aphids, its destructive effect becomes more severe. In this study, the response of pepper plants artificially infected with the virus and micronized CaCO3 (MC) was investigated under virus stress. The study was carried out in plants infected with CMV according to the randomized plot design with six replications in five groups. These groups consisted of; a) control, b) CMV-infected plants, c) CaCO3-applied healthy plants, d) CaCO3-applied CMV-infected plants. e) CMV-infected plants treated with CaCO3. To determine the effectiveness of micronized calcite, chlorophyll, protein, jasmonic acid (JA), salicylic acid (SA), catalase (CAT), peroxidase (POX) and malondialdehyde (MDA) analyses were performed on control, diseased, diseased + MC applied, MC + diseased plants. While CAT, POX and MDA enzyme contents increased in CMV-infected pepper leaves compared to healthy leaves, protein, chlorophyll JA and SA contents decreased (P<0.05). MC applied infected plants showed an increasing trend in chlorophyll, JA and SA contents compared to CMV infected plants. In this study, the changes in chlorophyll, protein content and antioxidant enzymes caused by CMV agent in pepper plants were investigated for the first time. It shows that MC application reduces pathogenic pressure in pepper plants. It is thought that knowing the biochemical responses of CMV agent in pepper plants will make significant contributions to the development of disease control strategies.