# The spicy dissemination of cucumber mosaic virus in Espelette

Loup Rimbaud, Karine Berthier, Lola Chateau, Alice Conilh, Cecile Desbiez, Romane Ducasse, Paul Dumeaux, Jonathan Gaudin, Gregory Girardot, Lucas Gonzalez, et al.

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Loup Rimbaud, Karine Berthier, Lola Chateau, Alice Conilh, Cecile Desbiez, et al. The spicy dissemination of cucumber mosaic virus in Espelette. 20. Rencontres de Virologie Végétale (RVV 2025), Jan 2025, Aussois, France. hal-05140676

HAL Id: hal-05140676

https://hal.inrae.fr/hal-05140676v1

Submitted on 2 Jul 2025

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The spicy dissemination of cucumber mosaic virus in Espelette

L. Rimbaud (1), K. Berthier (1), L. Chateau (1), A. Conilh (1), C. Desbiez (1), R. Ducasse (1), P. Dumeaux (3), J. Gaudin (1), G. Girardot (1), L. Gonzalez (1), J. Hirsch (1), E. Lepage (1,4,5), B. Moury (1), E. Nguyen (3), S. Piry (2,1), A. Schoeny (1), M. Szadkowski (1), C. Troulet (1), E. Verdin (1), C. Wipf-Scheibel (1)
[alphabetic order]

(1) INRAE, Pathologie Végétale, 84140, Montfavet, France

(2) UMR CBGP, INRAE, 34988, Montferrier sur Lez, France

(3) Syndicat du Piment d'Espelette AOP, 64250, Espelette, France

(4) INRAE - BioSP, 84914, Avignon, France

(5) AgroParisTech, 91123, Palaiseau, France

Espelette pepper farmers are currently facing devastating and recurrent viral epidemics due to a recent emergence of *Cucumber mosaic virus* (CMV). A collaboration between the "Syndicat du Piment d'Espelette AOP" (which federates Espelette pepper farmers) and the Virology team of the Plant Pathology unit of INRAE (Avignon) has emerged to investigate these epidemics and propose control strategies. To identify relevant and promising strategies, it is first necessary to acquire data on the virus epidemiology in the local context and understand what drives CMV epidemics in the Espelette area. In particular, it is currently unclear how CMV re-emerges every year on pepper crops despite the absence of pepper during winter. It is also intriguing to observe such severe epidemics in this area, where the high level of landscape fragmentation and plant biodiversity is generally predicted to mitigate disease spread.

In this study, we explored the possibility of year-to-year seed transmission from infected fruits, of the
presence of alternative hosts (serving as viral reservoir and thus inoculum sources) around pepper fields as well
as the role of aphid vectors (mediating plant-to-plant transmissions). For this, we first performed large-scale
surveys to collect samples (seeds, plants, aphids) in the Espelette area and monitor CMV incidence in different
elements of the agricultural landscape (pepper crops, surrounding crops, wild plants). Second, we ran
greenhouse experiments in controlled conditions to assess the efficiency of seed- and aphid-mediated
transmission.

This work enables the evaluation of the respective roles of the different CMV dissemination pathways and
helps decipher the key drivers of CMV epidemics in the Espelette area. These results will guide future research
efforts and help prioritize management options for further investigation.

Key words: *Cucumovirus*, Espelette pepper, viral transmission, wild reservoir, *Capsicum annuum*