VIEW ARTICLE

Source and Spread of Peanut Mottle Virus in Soybean and Peanut. James W. Demski, Assistant Professor of Plant Pathology, The University of Georgia College of Agricultural Experiment Stations, The Georgia Station, Experiment 30212; Phytopathology 65:917-920. Accepted for publication 26 March 1975. DOI: 10.1094/Phyto-65-917.

Virus incidence and distribution data show that the source of peanut mottle virus for soybean is infected peanut. The source of virus in peanut is infected seed, confirming a previous report. The virus is transmitted from peanut to soybean, from soybean to soybean, and from soybean to peanut. The virus can move at least 48 m in a single step to previously uninfected plants, but apparently not 6.5 km. As the distance between the inoculum source and adjacent plantings increases, the time until initial infection increases, resulting in a lower percentage of disease at crop maturity. The rapid increase of this disease in a planting was the result of inoculum dissemination from within, as opposed to between, plantings. It is this internal spread that leads to epiphytotic conditions.