First Report of a Virus Disease of Chickpea Caused by a Strain of Red Clover Vein Mosaic Carlavirus. R. C. Larsen, USDA-ARS, Prosser, WA 99350. W. J. Kaiser, USDA-ARS, Pullman, WA 99164; and S. D. Wyatt, Department of Plant Pathology. Washington State University, Pullman 99164. Plant Dis. 80:709. Accepted for publication 22 March 1996. Copyright 1996 The American Phytopathological Society. DOI: 10.1094/PD-80-0709A.

Chickpea (Cicer arietinum L.) is an important minor legume crop grown in the dryland areas of eastern Washington State and northern Idaho. During the 1994 growing season, a naturally occurring strain of red clover vein mosaic Carlavirus (RCVMV-ChP) was isolated from chickpea grown in the Palouse region of Washington. Virus incidence was less than 1%. Symptoms included severe stunting, mosaic, proliferation of axillary buds, and malformation of leaves and branches. Flower and pod formation numbers on affected plants were severely reduced. The virus could be differentiated from the type strain (RCVMV pv110, ATCC) by symptoms produced on mechanically inoculated Chenopodium amaranticolor Coste & Reyn. and C. quinoa Willd. RCMV-ChP produced chlorotic local lesions on inoculated leaves while RCVMV-110 produced necrotic local lesions. Symptoms on these indicator plants, however, were not readily visible during summer months when light intensities in the greenhouse were high. Chickpea could also be experimentally infected with RCVMV-110 when test plants were inoculated mechanically. Symptoms in chickpea produced by the two different strains were indistinguishable; however, RCVMV-ChP produced a mild systemic mosaic in pea (Pisum sativum L.) cv. Puget compared with more severe mosaic produced by RCVMV-110. An additional experimental host of RCVMV-ChP and one with potential economic importance is lentil (Lens culinaris Medik.). Lentil has not previously been reported as a host for RCVMV. Symptoms on lentil included mild mottling, chlorosis, and stunting of the plant. Purified virions of RCVMV-ChP and RCVMV 110 had similar capsid proteins of approximately 32,000 Dal-tons, as determined by sodium dodecyl sulfate polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis and Western blots (immunoblots). Total protein preparations on Western blots of the two virus strains in chickpea, lentil, and pea, each produced a major 32-kD protein band and several smaller polypeptide bands, which probably represent degradation products of the 32-kD protein. The virion nucleic acid consisted of a single species single-stranded RNA 7.05 kb for both strains as determined by glyoxal-denaturing agarose gels. RCVMV-ChP and RCVMV-110 were serologically indistinguishable based on enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay and Western blot studies. No serological relationship was observed between RCVMV-ChP and pea streak or alfalfa latent carlaviruses. Pea streak Carlavirus has previously been the only Carlavirus reported to infect chickpea under natural field conditions (1). This is the first report of RCVMV infecting the experimental host lentil and naturally occurring in chickpea.