Investigations concerning soil‐borne viruses in sugarbeet in Sweden¹

Abstract

Some experiments with soil‐borne beet viruses in cement tubes in a wire netting enclosure are described. It is confirmed that rhizomania (virus + vector) originating from German soil can survive and cause rhizomania in Sweden. Antisera produced in 1987 to one German BNYVV isolate and to one Swedish soil‐borne beet virus isolate, 86‐109, which is distinct from BNYVV, were used to check ELISA reactions in the tube beets. Positive ELISA was obtained not only for BNYVV but also for the 86‐109 virus from tubes with German inoculum. Beets from tubes with Swedish inoculum reacted only against 86‐109 antiserum. In 1988‐09, ELISA of 118 sugarbeet plants from Öland and 73 from Skåne, collected in 42 different fields with spots resembling rhizomania, showed no or weak reactions against 86‐109 antiserum, in contrast to plants collected in 1987. However, after transplanting the field plants into a warm glasshouse and using bait plants it was shown in ELISA and in transmission to Chenopodium quinoa that many of the bait plants became infected with the 86‐109 and ‘related viruses’ but not with BNYVV. Viruses of the 86‐109 type seem to be common both in Sweden and elsewhere but may escape detection, especially in mixed infections with BNYVV.

A comparison, using dsRNA analysis, between beet soil-borne virus and some other tubular viruses isolated from sugar beet

“…One serotype contains the German isolates Wierthe and Dornheim, and the second group comprises the German isolate Ahlum, BSBV-N, the Swedish isolate 86-109 (Lesemann et al, 1989) and the Belgian isolate 1530 (Hutchinson et al, 1990). These serotypes are distinct from BNYVV and from the soil-borne sugar beet viruses isolated in California (Lesemann et al, 1989;Lindsten, 1989). However, in the absence of reciprocal serological tests (owing to the lack of availability of antisera to all of the isolates examined), such a subdivision is tentative.…”

Monoclonal antibodies to beet soil‐borne virus

“…Beet soil-borne virus (BSBV) which was first described in England (Ivanovic & Macfarlane, 1982) is apparently widely spread in Europe (Henry, Jones & Coutts, 1986;Verhoyen, van den Bossche & van Steyvoort, 1987;Lindsten, 1989;Lesemann, Koenig, Lindsten & Henry, 1989). The virus resembles beet necrotic yellow vein virus (BNYVV), the causal agcnt of sugarbeet rhizomania, morphologically and in its transmissibility by Polymyxa beta (Ivanovic & Macfarlane, 1982).…”

“…However, no relationships have been found between the two viruses in serological or nucleic acid hybridisation tests and the ss and dsRNAs associated with the two viruses yield different electrophoretic patterns (Henry & Hutchinson, 1989; Lesemann et a f . , 1989;Li et al, 1990;Kaufmann et al, 1992h). Also, the RNAs of BNYVV are polyadenylated (Putz, Pinck, Fritsch & Pinck, 1983) whereas those of BSBV are apparently not (Kaufmann et al, 19926).…”

Genome properties of beet virus Q, a new furo-like virus from sugarbeet, determined from unpurified virus.

“…The Ahlum isolate proved to be serologically closely related to beet soil-borne virus (BSBV), which was first described in England (Ivanovic et al, 1983 ;Henry et al, 1986) and has since been found in all sugarbeet growing areas worldwide (e.g. Verhoyen et al, 1987 ;Lindsten, 1989 ; present authors' unpublished observations). The second virus (Wierthe isolate) was originally thought to be a serologically distantly RNA-dependent RNA polymerase region.…”