Abstract
BackgroundRice and maize dwarf diseases caused by the newly introduced Southern rice black-streaked dwarf virus (SRBSDV) have led to severe economic losses in South China in recent years. The distribution and diversity of SRBSDV have not been investigated in the main rice and maize growing areas in China. In this study, the distribution of SRBSDV in China was determined by using reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR).ResultsBetween 2009 and 2010, 2404 plant samples (2294 rice, 110 maize samples, and more than 300 cultivars) with dwarf symptoms were collected from fields in 194 counties of 17 provinces in China and SRBSDV was detected. The results indicated that 1545 (64.27%) of samples (both rice and maize) were infected with SRBSDV. SRBSDV was detected widely in Hainan, Guangdong, Guangxi, Yunnan, Guizhou, Chongqing, Fujian, Jiangxi, Hunan, Hubei, Anhui, Jiangsu, and Zhejiang provinces, which suggests SRBSDV is an important pathogen causing rice dwarfing diseases in South China. Phylogenetic analysis of 15 representative virus isolates revealed that SRBSDV isolates in China had high levels of nucleotide and amino acid sequence identities (>97.8%).ConclusionsSRBSDV spreads naturally in Yangtze River basin and south region, the location of the major rice production areas. In comparison, the virus rarely spreads north of Yangtze River in North China. Distribution of SRBSDV is consistent with the migrating and existing ranges of its vector WBPH, suggesting that SRBSDV might be introduced into South China along with the migration of viruliferous WBPH.
Highlights
Rice and maize dwarf diseases caused by the newly introduced Southern rice black-streaked dwarf virus (SRBSDV) have led to severe economic losses in South China in recent years
Identification and distribution of SRBSDV in China A novel rice black-streaked dwarf disease caused by SRBSDV, exhibiting similar symptoms with another rice dwarfing disease caused by Rice black-streaked dwarf virus (RBSDV) in the field, was investigated and identified in China
The 569-bp fragments were produced from SRBSDV-infected plant samples, whereas the 1119-bp products were amplified from samples infected by RBSDV
Summary
Rice and maize dwarf diseases caused by the newly introduced Southern rice black-streaked dwarf virus (SRBSDV) have led to severe economic losses in South China in recent years. Southern rice black-streaked dwarf virus (SRBSDV) was first identified in Yangjiang, Guangdong province in China in 2001, and has been proposed as a new member of the genus Fijivirus in the family Reoviridae [1]. The two viruses are indistinguishable in agarose or polyacrylamide gel electrophoretic profiles of their genome segments [1] Due to their overlapping plant host ranges and nearly indistinguishable symptoms in their common plant hosts, it is not easy to distinguish these two virus diseases based on visual symptoms. The complete nucleotide sequences of SRBSDV and RBSDV genomic RNAs were determined. Ten segments of SRBSDV share 60-80% of nucleotide sequence identities with RBSDV’s counterparts [8,9,10], facilitating accurate identification of the two viruses by using molecular approaches
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