Articles
Classification of symptoms caused by watermelon mosaic virus (WMV) on melons using deep learning: design of a lightweight model and mobile deployment
Published : 20 January 2026
Abstract
This project explores the application of Deep Learning to the automatic classification of symptoms caused by the watermelon mosaic virus (WMV) on melon, a crop heavily affected by this virus. A lightweight classification model was designed and trained on leaf images, then converted to TFLite format for on-board deployment on smartphones. Particular attention was paid to data preparation, visual noise reduction and mobile compatibility. The resulting mobile application enables rapid, localised prediction of disease stages, paving the way for diagnostic support in experimental conditions.
References
- Barbedo, J. G. A. (2019). Plant disease identification from individual lesions and spots using deep learning. Biosystems Engineering, 180, 96 107. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.biosystemseng.2019.02.002
- Desbiez, C. (2020). The never-ending story of cucurbits and viruses. Acta Horticulturae, 1294, 173 192. https://doi.org/10.17660/actahortic.2020.1294.23
- Díaz-Pendón, J. A., Fernández-Muñoz, R., Gómez-Guillamón, M. L., & Moriones, E. (2005). Inheritance of resistance to Watermelon mosaic virus in Cucumis melo that impairs virus accumulation, symptom expression, and aphid transmission. Phytopathology, 95(7), 840 846. https://doi.org/10.1094/phyto-95-0840
- Ferentinos, K. P. (2018). Deep learning models for plant disease detection and diagnosis. Computers and Electronics in Agriculture, 145, 311 318. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.compag.2018.01.009
- Fuentes, A., Yoon, S., Kim, S., & Park, D. (2017). A robust deep-learning-based detector for real-time tomato plant diseases and pests recognition. Sensors, 17(9), 2022. https://doi.org/10.3390/s17092022
- Gilbert, R. Z., Kyle, M. M., Munger, H. M., & Gray, S. M. (1994). Inheritance of resistance to Watermelon Mosaic Virus in Cucumis melo L. HortScience, 29(2), 107 110. https://doi.org/10.21273/hortsci.29.2.107
- Kang, B., Yeam, I., & Jahn, M. M. (2005). Genetics of plant virus resistance. Annual Review of Phytopathology, 43(1), 581 621. https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev.phyto.43.011205.141140
- Korte, A., & Farlow, A. (2013). The advantages and limitations of trait analysis with GWAS : a review. Plant Methods, 9(1), 29. https://doi.org/10.1186/1746-4811-9-29
- Lecoq, H., & Desbiez, C. (2012). Viruses of cucurbit crops in the mediterranean region. Advances in Virus Research, 84, 67 126. https://doi.org/10.1016/b978-0-12-394314-9.00003-8
- López-Martín, M., Montero-Pau, J., Ylla, G., Gómez-Guillamón, M. L., Picó, B., & Pérez-De-Castro, A. (2024). Insights into the early transcriptomic response against watermelon mosaic virus in melon. BMC Plant Biology, 24(1), 58. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12870-024-04745-x
- Mohanty, S. P., Hughes, D. P., & Salathé, M. (2016). Using deep learning for image-based plant disease detection. Frontiers in Plant Science, 7, 1419. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpls.2016.01419
- Mrisho, L. M., Mbilinyi, N. A., Ndalahwa, M., Ramcharan, A. M., Kehs, A. K., McCloskey, P. C., Murithi, H., Hughes, D. P., & Legg, J. P. (2020). Accuracy of a smartphone-based object detection model, PlantVillage Nuru, in identifying the foliar symptoms of the viral diseases of Cassava–CMD and CBSD. Frontiers in Plant Science, 11, 590889. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpls.2020.590889
- Palomares-Rius, F. J., Viruel, M. A., Yuste-Lisbona, F. J., López-Sesé, A. I., & Gómez-Guillamón, M. L. (2011). Simple sequence repeat markers linked to QTL for resistance to Watermelon mosaic virus in melon. Theoretical and Applied Genetics, 123(7), 1207 1214. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00122-011-1660-2
Attachments
No supporting information for this articleArticle statistics
Views: 226
