Different variants of the satellite RNA of groundnut rosette virus are responsible for the chlorotic and green forms of groundnut rosette disease*

Groundnut plants with symptoms of rosette disease contain groundnut rosette virus (GRV), but GRV is transmitted by Aphis craccivora only from plants that also contain groundnut rosette assistor virus (GRAV). Two main forms of rosette disease are recognised, ‘chlorotic rosette’ and ‘green rosette’. GRV cultures invariably possess a satellite RNA and this is the major cause of rosette symptoms: satellite-free isolates derived from GRV cultures from Nigerian plants with chlorotic or green rosette, or from Malawian plants with chlorotic rosette, induced no symptoms, or only transient mild mottle or interveinal yellowing, in groundnut. When the satellite RNA species from GRV cultures from Nigerian green or Malawian chlorotic rosette were reintroduced into the three satellite-free isolates in homologous and heterologous combinations, the ability to induce rosette symptoms was restored and the type of rosette induced was that of the cultures from which the satellite RNA was derived. Thus different forms of the satellite are responsible for the different forms of rosette disease. Other forms of the satellite induce only mild chlorosis or mottle symptoms in groundnut. Individual plants may contain more than one form of the satellite, and variations in their relative predominance are suggested to account for the variable symptoms (ranging from overall yellowing to mosaic) seen in some plants graft-inoculated with chlorotic rosette.