Bean Golden Mosaic Virus

Abstract

Bean golden mosaic virus (BGMV) was one of the first viruses known to cause a disease of an important food crop in the Americas. The initial BGMV epidemics observed in Brazil in the early 1970s were associated with large populations of the whitefly vector Bemisia tabaci, caused by the increasing planting of soybean, a suitable reproductive host of this whitefly species in Brazil. The characteristic systemic yellowing induced by BGMV was simultaneously observed throughout Central America and the Caribbean region, but the causal virus was later shown to be a distinct species currently known as Bean golden yellow mosaic virus. Golden mosaic-like symptoms observed in the 1970s in northwestern Mexico are caused by unrelated whitefly-transmitted viruses originally detected in cucurbits in southwestern USA, namely squash leaf curl virus and its legume variant bean calico mosaic virus. BGMV and bean golden yellow mosaic virus (BGYMV) are bipartite, single-stranded DNA viruses transmitted in a semipersistent manner by different biotypes of the whitefly species B. tabaci. These viruses replicate in the nuclei of affected plant cells, causing a major disruption of physiological processes that usually leads to significant yield losses and plant death. Genetic resistance has been effectively deployed to manage these diseases, but an integrated disease management approach is needed to guarantee the sustainability of cropping systems threatened by these whitefly-borne viruses.