Oral Technical Session: Virology

108-O

Occurrence and distribution of soybean viruses in Oklahoma.
A. ALI (1)
(1) Department of Biological Science, The University of Tulsa, Tulsa, OK, U.S.A.

Soybean is the leading oilseed crop produced and consumed in the world today. Approximately 67 viruses infect soybean worldwide and some of them pose a real threat to soybean industry by affecting the quality and quantity of soybean. In USA, soybean is one of the important legume crops and a number of viruses have been reported to infect soybean crops. In Oklahoma, soybean is grown on more than 500,000 acres annually but no information exist on the occurrence and distribution of viruses infecting soybean crops. In this study, soybean crops were examined during 2012 growing season in growers fields located at 18 counties of Oklahoma. Samples were tested serologically against 15 different viruses. Thirteen out of 15 viruses were detected by dot-immunobinding assay (DIBA) in soybean samples. PeMoV was detected more often followed by SVNV, BYMV, TSV, TRSV, SMV, PSV, ToRSV, CPSMV, BPMV, AMV, SbDV and CPMV. Of the 13 viruses, 8 viruses were never reported before in soybean crops of Oklahoma. The average incidence of viruses infecting soybean ranged from 1-20% while it was much higher (50-70% of samples) in some counties. More than 50% of the symptomatic samples did not react to the antiserum of the above 15 viruses which could represent viruses other than tested in this work or contain new or unreported viruses in soybean. These results will be discussed in the context of the future threats and possible epidemics caused by these viruses to soybean crops in Oklahoma.