Bean pod mottle virus (BPMV) is a beetle-transmitted viral disease of soybean. The disease causes a mottling of soybean leaves and severe strains of the virus may cause puckering and distortion of the leaves in the upper canopy. Stems of infected plants may remain green after the pods have matured and plants may also retain the leaf petioles after the leaf blades have abscised (green stem). In addition to causing harvesting problems, BPMV can lower seed quality and yield. The primary vector of BPMV is the bean leaf beetle. The western corn rootworm is now found in very high numbers in soybean fields in east central Illinois and northern Indiana. In addition to laying eggs in these fields, adults also feed on soybean foliage. In 1999, we discovered that some of the adult western corn rootworms we collected in Illinois soybean fields tested positive for BPMV. Since western corn rootworms are highly mobile and frequently fly between fields, this could lead to more widespread distribution of BPMV. In laboratory cage studies, we demonstrated BPMV transmission using field collected western corn rootworms. Our results suggest that transmission efficiency is lower for western corn rootworms than for bean leaf beetles. In soybean field sampling trips, 20 of 22 Illinois counties had western corn rootworms that tested positive for BPMV in 2000; in 2001, western corn rootworms tested positive for BPMV in 20 of 24 counties. The percentage of beetles testing positive for the virus ranged as high as 95% in some counties.
Species 1: Coleoptera Chrysomelidae Diabrotica virgifera virgifera (western corn rootworm)
Species 2: Coleoptera Chrysomelidae Cerotoma trifurcata (bean leaf beetle)
Keywords: green stem, BPMV
Back to Display Presentations, Subsection Cc. Insect Vectors in Relation to Plant Disease
Back to Posters
Back to The 2002 ESA Annual Meeting and Exhibition