Effects of Southern bean mosaic virus on growth and yield of soybean

Abstract

Six soybean lines were evaluated for resistance to Southern bean mosaic virus (SBMV) under screenhouse conditions. The trial was laid out using completely randomised design with four replications. Seedlings were mechanically inoculated with the virus at 10 days after sowing. Disease incidence, disease severity (scale 1 – 5; 1 = apparently healthy plants, 5 = severe mosaic), morphological and yield parameters were recorded. Data were subjected to Analysis of Variance (ANOVA) at 5 % level of probability. One hundred percent infection was observed in all the lines but disease severity was significantly lowest in TGX 2007 – 1F (2.4). The same soybean line exhibited the lowest reductions in number of leaves per plant ((5.1 %)), leaf diameter (5.9 %), number of branches per plant (14.3 %), number of pods per plant (12.5 %), and seed weight per plant (6.3 %). The present results indicated the potential of TGX 2007 – 1F as a source of resistance gene (s) for breeding soybean cultivars against SBMV disease