PEA SEED-BORNE MOSAIC-VIRUS - OCCURRENCE IN FABA BEAN (VICIA-FABA) AND LENTIL (LENS-CULINARIS) IN WEST ASIA AND NORTH-AFRICA, AND FURTHER INFORMATION ON HOST-RANGE, TRANSMISSION CHARACTERISTICS, AND PURIFICATION

In a survey for viruses of cultivated legumes in West Asia and North A frica, pea seed-borne mosaic virus (PSbMV) was found in faba bean, len til and pea. Using ELISA, it was detected in 107 out of 1554 faba bean samples and 40 out of 496 lentil samples with virus-like symptoms col lected in Algeria, Egypt, Ethiopia, Jordan, Lebanon, Libya, Morocco, S udan, Tunisia and Turkey. A pea isolate (SP9-88) from Syria was furthe r characterized. Out of 57 plant species tested, 35 were found suscept ible, 19 of which are newly reported hosts of the virus. The virus was transmitted efficiently in the non-persistent manner by five aphid sp ecies, especially Myzus persicae. Purification from systemically infec ted faba bean plants yielded 10-15 mg of purified virus per kg of infe cted tissue. Sap-inoculation of the food and forage legume species chi ckpea, faba bean, lentil, pea, Vicia narbonensis, V. sativa, Lathyrus ochrus and L. sativus at flowering stage led to 66.0, 40.5, 44.6, 49.2 , 31.7, 7.5, 35.7 and 12.0% yield loss, respectively, and to seed-tran smission rates of 0.7, 6.0, 10.8, 1.1, 0.3, 0.2 and 0.4%, respectively . No transmission was detected in chickpea seed embryo axes. However, the virus was detected in the seed coat of PSbMV-infected chickpea at an estimated rate of 1.81%.