Effect of Cucumber mosaic virus infected seeds on growth and yield parameters of soybean (Glycine max L. Merr.)

Abstract

Cucumber mosaic virus (CMV) causes significant yield losses in legumes. To date, use of host-plant resistance remains the most effective and sustainable management approach. Experiment was conducted under screenhouse conditions to determine the effect of CMV-infected seeds on the growth and yield attributes of some selected soybean lines. Seeds of healthy soybean plants were planted as control. A total of twenty four soybean lines were evaluated using Completely Randomised Design with four replications. Disease incidence and severity, growth and yield attributes were recorded. Virus concentration in infected plants was determined at five weeks after sowing, using Antigen Coated Plate-Enzyme-Linked Immunosorbent Assay (ACP-ELISA). Data were subjected to Analysis of Variance (ANOVA). Growth and yield stability were determined using Additive Main Effects and Multiplicative Interaction (AMMI) analysis. All the seedlings from CMV-infected seeds elicited leaf chlorosis and mosaic symptoms of infection. At 5 weeks after sowing, TGX 1985-1D and TGX 1990-21F exhibited significantly (p<0.05) lowest disease severity score (symptom score = 2.3) whereas TGX 1995-5F had the highest severity score (symptom score = 4). The lowest virus titre (0.8) was found in TGX 1990-21F while the highest (1.5) was observed in TGX 1989-63F. The effects of soybean lines and treatments (infected and control) accounted for 34.5 and 52.8 % of the total variation for 100-seed weight, respectively. The present study showed that TGX 1985-1D which exhibited significantly (p<0.05) lowest reductions in most of the parameters evaluated could be described as the most tolerant and utilized for breeding CMV-resistant soybean cultivars