Seed-borne Viruses Infecting Some Important Crops in Ethiopia

Abstract

Seed samples comprising haricot bean, cowpea, faba bean, field pea, lentil, peanut, hot pepper, lettuce, and leaf samples of maize collected from various locations in Ethiopia were tested for a total of 16 seed-borne viruses. Visual inspection, growingon test, ELISA, indicator plant methods and electron microscopy were employed. The viruses detected were bean common mosaic virus in haricot bean, soybean mosaic virus in soybean, pea seed-borne mosaic virus in faba bean and field pea, tobacco mosaic virus in hot pepper, lettuce mosaic virus in lettuce, and sugar cane mosaic virus in maize. The presence of pea seed-borne mosaic virus in field pea and lettuce mosaic virus in lettuce are confirmed for the first time in Ethiopia. No virus was detected in lentil, cowpea and peanut seed samples tested.