First Report of Faba bean necrotic yellows virus Affecting Legume Crops in Azerbaijan

Abstract

A total of 482 chickpea (Cicer arietinum L.), 182 lentil (Lens culinaris Medik.), 12 vetch (Vicia sativa L.), 5 field pea (Pisum sativum L.), and 3 faba bean (Vicia faba L.) samples were collected from plants with symptoms suggestive of a viral infection (leaf rolling, yellowing, and stunting) from the major legume-production areas of Azerbaijan in the 2007 and 2008 growing seasons. All samples were tested by the tissue-blot immunoassay (3) at the Virology Laboratory of ICARDA, Syria using 11 specific legume virus antisera including a monoclonal antibody (2-5H9) (1) for Faba bean necrotic yellows virus (FBNYV). Laboratory tests showed that FBNYV was detected in 73, 61, 11, 3, and 2 samples of chickpea, lentil, vetch, field pea, and faba bean, respectively. Total DNA was extracted from six FBNYV-positive samples (two chickpea, two lentil, and two vetch) and tested by PCR with the following four primer sets (FBNYV, Milk vetch dwarf virus [MDV], Subterranean clover stunt virus [SCSV], and nanovirus DNA-R primers [F103 and R101]) (2). All six Azeri samples as well as the reference nanovirus isolates (SCSV-Australia, MDV-Japan, and FBNYV-Syria) generated amplicons of the expected size (~770 bp) using the nanovirus DNA-R primers (F103 & R101). In addition, Azeri samples and FBNYV-Syria yielded a PCR amplicon of the expected size (666 bp) with the FBNYV primer pair. The MDV- and SCSV-specific primers did not generate amplicons with these six samples. Sequence analysis of the FBNYV amplicons from two isolates (AzL 282-07 from lentil [GenBank Accession No. GQ351600] and AzV 277-07 from vetch [GenBank Accession No. GQ371215]) showed that they were 99% identical with each other. Comparing the sequence of AzL 282-07 with that of other nanoviruses revealed identities of 97% (FBNYV-Spain; DQ830990), 96% (FBNYV-Iran; AM493900), 92% (FBNYV-Syria; Y11408), 92% (FBNYV-Egypt; AJ132183), 78% (MDV; AB044387) and 69% (SCSV-Australia; U16734). FBNYV has been reported to infect food legumes in many countries in West Asia and North Africa and cause economic losses on faba bean in Egypt, Jordan, and Syria. To our knowledge, this is the first record of FBNYV infecting legume crops in Azerbaijan. References: (1) A. Franz et al. Ann. Appl. Biol. 128:255, 1996. (2) S. G. Kumari et al. Phytopathol. Mediterr. 47:42, 2008. (3) K. M. Makkouk and A. Comeau. Eur. J. Plant Pathol. 100:71, 1994.

Viruses infecting chickpea and lentil crops in Azerbaijan

“…In this survey, a number of viruses were detected in Azerbaijan for the first time: FBNYV, BWYV, CpCSV and BLRV in chickpea and lentil crops; and PSbMV in lentil crops (a preliminary report on FBNYV in Azerbaijan was published recently; Kumari et al 2009b) …”

Genome diversity and evidence of recombination and reassortment in nanoviruses from Europe

“…The occurrence in Europe of the known nanovirus FBNYV has been described in Spain (Ortiz et al , 2006) and Azerbaijan (Kumari et al , 2009; Mustafayev et al , 2011), yet without providing detailed sequence information. The discovery and identification of PNYDV in Germany (Grigoras et al , 2010a) prompted us to conduct further nanovirus surveys in several legume-growing areas in Central Europe as well as in more remote locations of Azerbaijan.…”

“…Whereas babuviruses appear to be restricted to wild and cultivated Musa and cardamom species in Africa, Australia, South Asia and Pacific islands (Thomas, 2008), nanoviruses have been reported from a wide variety of legume species in an increasing number of countries throughout North and Eastern Africa, the Middle East, China, Japan, Australia (Abraham et al , 2010, 2012; Makkouk & Kumari, 2009; Vetten, 2008) and even Europe, where faba bean necrotic yellows virus (FBNYV) was first reported from Spain in 2000 (Babín et al , 2000) and from Azerbaijan in 2009 (Kumari et al , 2009). Recently, we identified a novel nanovirus, pea necrotic yellow dwarf virus (PNYDV), in commercially grown pea ( Pisum sativum L.) in Germany (Grigoras et al , 2010a).…”

Tropical Food Legumes

“…When plants were infected at the preflowering stage, yield reductions up to 91% were reported. FBNYV was reported on lentil from Ethiopia, Iran, Iraq, Pakistan, Syria, and Turkey (Kumari, Attar, Mustafayev, & Akparov, 2009). No sources of resistance have been recorded for these two viruses.…”