Occurrence of plant viruses in the Tallgrass Prairie Preserve, Oklahoma

The Plant Virus Biodiversity and Ecology (PVBE) project seeks to inventory the viruses associated with plants at the Tallgrass Prairie Preserve, Osage County, northeastern Oklahoma.  In addition to a broad survey of all vascular plant species, we performed more intensive inventories of two common perennial forbs - Asclepias viridis and Ambrosia psilostachya.  Nucleic acid was obtained from virus-like particles extracted from the leaf tissue and sequenced for identification of plant viruses.  The result showed a new virus species of Tymovirus (Tymoviridae) and a new species of Comovirus (Comoviridae) from Asclepias viridis, and a new species of Badnavirus (Caulimoviridae) and Potexvirus (Flexiviridae) from Ambrosia psilostachya.   These viruses have no obvious symptoms.  The tymovirus of Asclepias occurs in all specimens sampled so far, and may play an important role in the plant’s biology.   We have not yet encountered any previously described virus species.