XVI International Botanical Congess

The structure and arrangement of various tissues and the changes on cucumber mosaic virus (CMV) infection were studied on two CMV resistant and two susceptible chilli pepper cultivars. The resistant varieties recorded significantly higher thickness of the cuticle and the epidermal tissues than susceptible varieties. After infection with virus, in the susceptible genotypes, the epidermal layer lost its uniformity. The palisade tissues were irregularly arranged and fragmented and the arrangement of the spongy tissues was also distroted with no continuous network. But on ifection, in the resistant genotypes, only palisade was irregularly arranged with more intracellular spaces. And the changes in other tissues were less marked as compared to the susceptible genotypes.