VIEW ARTICLE

Ecology and Epidemiology

Beet Necrotic Yellow Vein Virus in North America. Abdullah M. Al Musa, Former graduate research assistant, Washington State University, Irrigated Agriculture Research and Extension Center, Prosser 99350, Present address of senior author: Faculty of Agriculture, University of Jordan, Amman, Jordan; Gaylord I. Mink, plant pathologist, Washington State University, Irrigated Agriculture Research and Extension Center, Prosser 99350. Phytopathology 71:773-776. Accepted for publication 5 January 1981. Copyright 1981 The American Phytopathological Society. DOI: 10.1094/Phyto-71-773.

Beet necrotic yellow vein virus (BNYVV) was isolated from soil samples collected from beneath the canopy of two different cherry trees in the same orchard in the state of Washington. Results of back-inoculation attempts suggested that the virus may have been associated with some weed host rather than with cherry. The Washington BNYVV isolate had a limited host range that differed only slightly from those of isolates found in France and Japan to which the Washington isolate was related serologically. Purified virus preparations aggregated spontaneously at concentrations above 0.2 mg/ml. A purification procedure was developed that yielded enough nonaggregated virus to demonstrate the presence of four nucleoprotein components designated NP 1, NP 2, NP 3, and NP 4 having sedimentation coefficients of 98S, 132S, 154S, and 174S, respectively. Infectivity was associated primarily with NP 4. The virus was serologically unrelated to tobacco mosaic virus, tobacco rattle virus, or wheat soilborne mosaic virus. This appears to be the first report of BNYVV in North America.