Brief Summary of Minutes of Annual Meeting

The Soybean virus symposium entitled The Role of Climate Change on Virus / Vector Relationships was held October 30, 2008 at Iowa State University, Ames, Iowa. The keynote speaker was Dr. David Ragsdale, University of Minnesota. Other speakers and titles included: Forrest Nutter, Iowa State University, Temporal and Spatial Spread of Bean Pod Mottle Virus at The Field and County Level in Iowa; Claudio Gratton, University of Wisconsin, Ecology of Viruses and Vectors in The Agricultural Landscape; Craig Grau, University of Wisconsin-Madison, New Sources of Resistance to Soybean Viruses; Chris Zhang, Iowa State University, Underlying Mechanisms of Susceptibility to Soybean Viruses; and Michelle Graham, Iowa State University; "New Opportunities for Finding Soybean Resistance Genes as a Result of The Soybean Gene Sequencing Project." The symposium adjourned at 3:00 p.m. The annual business meeting began at 3:15 p.m. President, Craig Grau welcomed the group and presented an overview of the program. Dr. Steve Slack, Administrative advisor gave the group an update on deadlines for upcoming reports. State reports were given by: John Hill, Iowa State University; Craig Grau, University of Wisconsin; M. R. Hajimorad, University of Tennessee; Ben Lockhart, University of Minnesota; Les Domier, University of Illinois; Berlin Nelson, North Dakota University; Ron Hammond, The Ohio State University. Said Ghabrial, University of Kentucky provided a written report was unable to attend the meeting. No other reports were filed after three email requests. Election of officers: David Wright rotated in as chair and Rouf Mian was unanimously elected as vice chair. The complete set of minutes as well as the state reports are attached.

The goals of the project are to (1) enhance interaction among scientists in the North Central region who are engaged in fundamental and applied soybean virus research and (2) establish media for effective dissemination and communication of information about the incidence, identification, and management of soybean virus diseases in the North Central region. The group is working on several soybean virus diseases including bean pod mottle, soybean mosaic, alfalfa mosaic, and soybean dwarf. Much work is being conducted on bean pod mottle virus with grants from the North Central Soybean Research Program, United Soybean Board and the Iowa Soybean Association. A major focus of the soybean virus research at the University of Kentucky (UK) is to utilize the novel bean pod mottle virus (BPMV)-based vector, developed at UK, for gene function studies and expression of valuable proteins in soybean. VIGS is especially useful for plants, such as soybean, that are recalcitrant to transformation. Emphasis is placed on identification of resistance genes to major soybean pathogens and on screening candidate antifungal proteins from diverse sources. Iowa State University also has been using virus-induced gene silencing (VIGS) as a reverse genetics tool to study functions of specific plant genes. Because BPMV has been shown to be an effective VIGS vector for soybean, they have developed a unique DNA-based BPMV vectors to increase the efficiency and utility of VIGS for soybean functional genomics. The University of Illinois reports Highly effective VIGS vectors have been developed for soybean based on BPMV, but BPMV rarely invades meristems or developing embryos. In contrast, TSV readily invades both of these tissues. Therefore, a VIGS vector based on [tobacco streak virus] TSV would permit the analysis of gene function in tissue types and developmental stages that would be difficult to affect using BPMV vectors. In regard to soybean dwarf virus, researchers at the University of Illinois found that the efficiencies of transmission by A. glycines of SbDV isolates with variant coat protein sequences were compared and found to be very similar. Wisconsin reports that there has been an increase in incidence of Alfalfa mosaic virus (AMV) in some of the soybean growing areas of the Northern states in recent years. However, absence of a fast, reliable, sensitive and easy diagnostic assay for AMV is not available. The research team attempted to develop a desirable monoclonal antibody to capable of detecting all AMV strains. Characterization of the produced antibodies showed that all belong to IgM sub-class; a sub-class not user friendly for assay development. None of these antibodies showed any satisfactory result in either of the assays. Because of the recent increase in aphid and bean leaf beetle activity in North Dakota, another virus survey was conducted in July and August of 2007. Leaves were collected from 139 soybean fields in southeastern North Dakota and evaluated for presence of soybean mosaic virus (SMV) and bean pod mottle virus (BPMV) using Agdia virus kits. Nineteen fields tested positive for SMV and 8 were positive for BPMV. Repeated testing of leaf samples however, gave variable results with the Agdia kits.

Eggenberger, A. L., Hajimorad, M. R., and Hill, J. H. 2008. Gain of virulence on Rsv1-genotype soybean by an avirulent Soybean Mosaic Virus requires concurrent mutations in both P3 and HC-Pro. MPMI 21:931-936. Bradshaw, J. D., Rice, M. E., and Hill, J. H. 2008. Evaluation of management strategies for bean leaf beetles (Coleoptera: Chrysomelidae) and bean pod mottle virus (Comoviridae) in soybeans. J. Econ. Entomol. 101:1211-1227. Bradshaw, J., Zhang, C., Hill, J. and Rice, M. 2007. A novel naturally occurring reassortant of bean pod mottle virus (Comoviridae: Comovirus) from a native perennial plant and the molecular characterization of adjacent soybean-field isolates http://esa.confex.com/esa/2007/techprogram/paper_31057.htm Donaldson, J.R., and Gratton, C. 2007. Antagonistic effects of soybean viruses on soybean aphid performance. Environmental Entomology 36:918-925 Eggenberger, A. L. Hajimorad, M. R. & Hill, J. H. 2008. Gain of virulence on Rsv1-genotype soybean by an avirulent Soybean mosaic virus requires concurrent mutations in both P3 and HC-Pro. Molecular Plant-Microbe Interactions 21, 931-936 Fu, D., Ghabrial, S. A. and Kachroo, A. 2008. GmRAR1 and GmSGT1 are required for basal, R gene-mediated and systemic acquired resistance in soybean. Mol. Plant-Microbe Interact. (in press) Gagarinova, A. G., Babu, M., Poysa, V., Hill, J. H., and Wang, A. 2008. Identification and molecular characterization of two naturally occurring Soybean mosaic virus isolates that are closely related but differ in their ability to overcome Rsv4 resistance. Virus Research. In press. Gu, H., Zhang, C. and Ghabrial, S. A. 2007. Novel naturally occurring Bean pod mottle virus reassortants with mixed heterologous RNA1 genomes. Phytopathology 97, 79-86. Hajimorad, M. R., Eggenberger, A. L., and Hill, J. H. 2008. Adaptation of Soybean mosaic virus avirulent chimeras containing P3 sequences from virulent strains to Rsv1-genotype soybeans is mediated by mutations in HC-Pro. MPMI 21:937-946. Hajimorad, M. R., Eggenberger, A. L., Hill, J. H. & Saghai-Maroof, M. A. 2008. Experimental adaptation of an avirulent Soybean mosaic virus to different soybean genotypes containing Rsv1 is associated with varying mutations in HC-Pro and P3. Proceedings of American Society for Virology, 27th annual meeting, July 12-16, Cornell University, Ithaca, New York P. 95. Hajimorad, M. R., Eggenberger, A. L., Malapi-Nelson, M. & Hill, J. H. 2008. Effect of mutations in HC-Pro of Soybean mosaic virus on symptom expression in soybean and the ability to induce disease synergism in mixed infection with Alfalfa mosaic virus. Phytopathology: 98 (supplement) S65 Kendell, A., McDonald, M, Bian, W., Bowles, T., Baumgarten, S. C., Shi, J., Stewart, P. L., Bullitt, E., Gore, D., Irving, T. A., Havens, W. M., Ghabrial, S. A. Wall, J. S. and Stubbs, G. 2008. Structure of flexible filamentous plant viruses. J. Virol. 82, 9546-9554. Kachroo, A., Fu, D-Qi, Havens, W., Navarre, D., Kachroo, P, and Ghabrial, S. A. 2008. An oleic acid-mediated pathway induces constitutive defense signaling and enhanced resistance to multiple pathogens in soybean. Mol. Plant-Microbe Interact. 21, 564-575. Kang, S.T., Mian, M.A.R. and Hammond, R.B. Soybean Aphid Resistance in PI 243540 is Controlled by a Single Dominant Gene. Crop Sci. 48:1744-1748. 2008. Kim, K.S., Hill, C.B., Hartman, G.L., Mian, M.A.R., and Diers, B.W. Discovery of Soybean Aphid Biotypes. Crop Sci. 48: 923-928. 2008. Kopisch-Obuch, F.J., Koval, N.C., Mueller, E.M., Paine, C., Grau, C.R., and Diers, B.W. 2008. Inheritance of resistance to Alfalfa mosaic virus in soybean plant introduction PI 153282. Crop Sci. 48:933-940. Malapi-Nelson, M., Ownley, B., Gwinn, K. & Hajimorad, M. R. (2008). Mixed infection of Alfalfa mosaic virus and Soybean mosaic virus in soybeans results in disease synergism. Phytopathology: 98 (supplement) S97 Mian, M.A.R., Kang, S.T., Beil, S.E., Hammond, R.B. Genetic linkage mapping of the soybean aphid resistance gene in PI 243540. Theor. Appl. Genet. 117:955-962. 2008. Mian M.A.R., Kang, S.T., M.G. Redinbaugh. Microsatellite diversity of soybean genotypes differing in leaf symptoms of bean pod mottle virus. Canadian Journal Plant Science: in press 2009. Mian, M.A.R., R.B. Hammond, and S. St. Martin. New plant introductions with resistance to the soybean aphid. Crop Sci. 48: 1055-1061. 2008. Stubbs, G., Kendall, A., McDonald, M., Bian, W., Bowles, T., Baumgarten, S., McCullough, I., Shi, J., Stewart, P., Bullitt, E., Gore, D. and Ghabrial, S. 2007. Flexible filamentous virus structures from fiber diffraction. Adv. X-ray Anal. 51, 116-123. Redinbaugh. M. G., J E. Molineros, J. Vacha, S. A. Berry, R. B. Hammond, L. V. Madden and A. E. Dorrance. 2008. Bean Pod Mottle Virus Movement in Insect Feeding Resistant Soybeans. Phytopathology. In preparation (2009). Zhang, C., Yang, C., Whitham, S. A., and Hill, J. H. 2008. Development and use an efficient DNA-based viral gene silencing vector for soybean. MPMI. In press. Zhang, C., Gu, H., and (2007). Molecular characterization of naturally occurring RNA1 Ghabrial, S. A. recombinants of the comovirus Bean pod mottle virus. Phytopathology 97, 1245-1254.