Ammi majus L., a member of the Apiaceae and also known as large bullwort, false Queen Anne's lace, or bishop's-weed, is frequently used in the floral trade to add a lacey look to floral bouquets. A. majus is native to the Mediterranean Region but it is cultivated in major growing areas including Holland, Israel, the United Kingdom, and the United States. During March 2005, virus-like symptoms including mosaic, generalized chlorosis, vein clearing, interveinal chlorosis, and leaf rugosity were observed in nearly all field-grown A. majus plants at two locations in Martin County, Florida. Inclusion body morphology suggested the presence of one or more potyviruses in the symptomatic plants. Potyvirus infection was confirmed in 11 symptomatic plants using a commercially available enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) kit (Agdia, Elkhart, IN). Nucleotide and deduced amino acid sequences of a 1,625-bp region of one of the reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction products amplified with degenerate potyvirus primers (1) from total RNA of symptomatic plants (GenBank Accession No. DQ333346) were 96 to 97% and 93 to 99% identical, respectively, to Clover yellow vein virus (ClYVV) sequences in GenBank. All symptomatic plants tested were potyvirus positive using ELISA, but only a subset was infected with ClYVV suggesting that the field symptoms were the result of infection with additional potyviruses, all of which are likely aphid transmitted. Although several potyviruses have been reported from A. majus (2), to our knowledge, this represents the first report of ClYVV infection.
References: (1) A. Gibbs and A. Mackenzie. J. Virol. Methods 63:9, 1997. (2) P. Van Dijk and L. Bos. Neth. J. Plant Pathol. 95(Suppl.) 2:1, 1989.
