Natural occurrence of groundnut ringspot virus on soybean in South Africa

Mechanically transmissible viruses were isolated from two soyabean (Glycine max) plants from Rustenburg, Northwest Province and Greytown, KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa, respectively. The viruses were isolated by two serial local-lesion transmissions and typical tospovirus-like particles were detected in ultrathin sections of infected plants. Based on serological analysis of samples using various tospovirus antisera in a number of enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay formats and the analysis of their nucleotide sequences, the pathogen was identified as groundnut ringspot virus (GRSV). This is thought to be the first report of the natural occurrence of GRSV on soyabean worldwide