APS Abstracts of Presentations

Incidence and spatial patterns of viruses in New York snap beans in 2002. D. A. SHAH (1), B. A. Nault (2), H. R. Dillard (1), S. Mazumdar-Leighton (3), and D. Gonsalves (4). (1) NYSAES, Dept. of Plant Pathology; and (2) Dept. of Entomology; Geneva, NY 14456; (3) Delhi University, Dept. of Botany, Delhi, India; (4) USDA-ARS PWA, Pacific Basin Agricultural Research Center, Hilo, HI 96720. Phytopathology 93:S78. Publication no. P-2003-0571-AMA.

Viruses were implicated in reducing New York snap bean yields in recent years. We sampled 12 bean fields at bloom (20 quadrats per field, five plants per quadrat) in 2002, and assayed individual plants for Alfalfa mosaic virus (AMV), Cucumber mosaic virus (CMV), Bean common mosaic virus (BCMV), and Bean yellow mosaic virus (BYMV) by ELISA. Fields were either early- (EP) or late-season planted (LP), and were adjacent to alfalfa (a putative source of these viruses) or >1.5 km from alfalfa. Mean incidences of virus-infected plants were 26.0% for AMV, 40.7% for CMV, 33.6% for BCMV, and 16.4% for BYMV. Incidences of AMV or CMV-infected plants were significantly lower (P < 0.05) in EP fields. Proximity of beans to alfalfa did not affect virus infection incidences. Aggregated patterns of virus-infected plants were more frequent in fields adjacent to alfalfa (41% of the time) compared with fields remote from alfalfa (17% of the time).