Skip to main content
ARS Home » Northeast Area » Frederick, Maryland » Foreign Disease-Weed Science Research » Research » Publications at this Location » Publication #392958
Research Project: Molecular Identification, Characterization, and Biology of Foreign and Emerging Viral and Bacterial Plant Pathogens

Location: Foreign Disease-Weed Science Research

Title: Virus sequences indicating mixed infections in peanut (Arachis hypogaea)

Author
item Sherman, Diana
item MASSA, ALICIA - US Department Of Agriculture (USDA)
item Stewart, Lucy

Submitted to: APS Annual Meeting
Publication Type: Abstract Only
Publication Acceptance Date: 5/13/2022
Publication Date: 6/24/2023
Citation: Sherman, D.J., Massa, A.N., Stewart, L.R. 2023. Virus sequences indicating mixed infections in peanut (Arachis hypogaea). APS Annual Meeting. 112:S3.1. https://doi.org/10.1094/PHYTO-112-11-S3.1.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1094/PHYTO-112-11-S3.1

Interpretive Summary:

Technical Abstract: In August 2021, peanut plants showing severe and variable virus-like symptoms were observed at a research plot in Dawson, Georgia. Samples from 12 individual plants were sent to the Foreign Disease-Weed Science Research Unit in Frederick, MD for identification at USDA-ARS-FDWSRU’s plant containment facility to examine the possibility of newly invasive disease. Each sample was immediately assessed for symptoms, photographed, then leaf tissue was ground in liquid nitrogen. Extracted RNA was used to prepare ribosome-depleted RNA transcriptome libraries sequenced using MiSeq (Illumina) 250 nt paired-end analysis. Paired reads from a highly symptomatic sample were mapped to the peanut genome (GCF_003086295.2), the non-mapped reads were then de novo assembled. NCBI BLAST–Megablast BLASTn against nucleotide collection-nr_nt was used to identify the assembled contigs. Once putative pathogens were identified from de novo assembled contigs, each sample’s paired reads were mapped to the Ref_Seq. Each peanut sample was found to contain sequences with top hits to peanut mosaic virus and peanut mottle virus, and samples with severe bunching and mosaic also contained sequences matching tomato spotted wilt virus. All three viruses are found in the United States and individually have the potential to cause economic loss due to infection. Dual infections have previously been reported, but reports of high levels of all three viruses in one sample, as observed for multiple samples in this test set, are rare. Severe virus symptoms have not previously been correlated with mixed infections of these viruses.