Three Different Viruses Isolated from Typical Weed Plants that Grown Adjacent to Common Crop Fields

Weeds are widely grown in the field and are infected by many viruses. A survey was conducted to identify viruses infecting weeds in Korea. Virus-infected weed samples including Rorippa indica (L.) Hiern, R. islandica (Oed.) Bord, Crepidiastrum denticulatum (Houtt.) Pak & Kawanno, Achyranthes japonica (Miq.) Nakai, and Chrysanthemum boreale (Makino) Makino were collected in Kyonggi Province. These weeds were grown in the greenhouse and were isolated on 10 test plants. Several virus isolates were isolated fron infected tissues and were further studied by host range assay, serological test, electron microscopy (EM), reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) and sequencing. Each isolated virus strain was mechanically transmitted to weeds and various hosts including Nicotiana spp., Brassica spp., Vigna unguiculata, Capsicum annuum, and Cucumis sativus and showed systemic mosaic, vein clearing, necrosis, mottle, malformation, chlorosis, and/or death of host plants in some cases. Each virus was then purified using infected leaves and observed by EM. From these results three viruses were isolated and identified as Turnip mosaic virus (TuMV), Broad bean wilt virus (BBWV), and Cucumber mosaic virus (CMV). RT-PCR using virus-specific oligonucleotide primers and the cloning were conducted to determine the nucleotide sequences of coat proteins of the three viruses their amino acid sequence were deduced. The amino acid sequence homologies were about 92.7 to 99.7%, 96.2 to 97.7%, and 93.9 to 98.6% to other reported TuMV, BBWV, and CMV strains, respectively. These results suggest that many weeds may serve as primary inoculum source of diseases caused by TuMV, BBWV, CMV and that the management of these viral diseases can be achieved through weed control.