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Ecology and Epidemiology

Seed Transmission of Peanut Mottle Virus in Peanuts. D. B. Adams, Department of Plant Pathology, University of Georgia, Athens, GA 30602, Present address: Cooperative Extension Service, Rural Development Center, Tifton, GA 31794; C. W. Kuhn, Plant Genetics, University of Georgia, Athens, GA 30602. Phytopathology 67:1126-1129. Accepted for publication 21 March 1977. Copyright © 1977 The American Phytopathological Society, 3340 Pilot Knob Road, St. Paul, MN 55121. All rights reserved.. DOI: 10.1094/Phyto-67-1126.

Seed transmission of peanut mottle virus (PMV) in peanuts is a consequence of embryo infection. Virus was isolated from embryos but not from seed coats or cotyledons. Four isolates of PMV differed in frequency of seed transmission in Starr peanut: M1 = 0.3%, M2 = 0.0%, M3 = 8.5%, and N = 0.0%. Isolate M3 was transmitted at similar frequencies (average = 7.1%) in seed of four peanut cultivars. Isolate M2, however, was not seed-transmitted in large-seeded peanuts although it was transmitted at a low frequency (0.23%) in small-seeded ones. When seed were harvested from individual plants, seven of 30 peanut plants produced 777 seed free of PMV-M3 whereas the seed transmission varied from 0.5 - 8.3% of the remaining plants. Seed transmission of PMV was unrelated to the level of virus in leaves and flowers. When peanut plants were maintained at 21 or 35 C during flowering and pegging, seed transmission was reduced threefold when compared to greenhouse-grown peanuts.