An Attempt to Cure St. Augustine Decline Virus

Abstract

St. Augustine Decline (SAD) Virus or Panicum Mosaic Virus (PMV) is a disease that kills St. Augustine grass, corn, and common wheat. My goal is to cure PMV by finding the virus that it mutated from. I believe it to be one of three viruses: Oat Chlorotic Stunt Virus, Maize Necrotic Streak Virus, and Galinsoga Mosaic Virus.

I narrowed it down to these three viruses through process of elimination. PMV is the only species in its genus, however there are a total of 13 genera in its family, Tombusviridae. PMV originated in Kansas in 1953, so I looked up what the main crops grown there at that time were. I found Kansas Department of Agriculture documents that said that wheat, sorghum, soybeans, and corn were grown between 1950 and 1960. Using this I eliminated 7 of the 12 other families, because they did not affect any of the crops grown there. I then eliminated two more families because they were not created until after PMV had already been discovered, meaning that they could be descendants of PMV, but not ancestors.

My plan is to attempt to infect patches of St. Augustine grass with each of these viruses. If only one virus can affect them, then it is the most likely ancestor, and I will focus on studying how the grass’s immune system fights it, what factors aid and inhibit the grasses ability to fight it, and if this predecessor to PMV can be used to inoculate grass against PMV.