Botany Department, Harish Chandra Post Graduate College, Varanasi.
Abstracts of Research Papers Presented during the National Symposium of Indian Virological Society at Unit of Plant Virology, Division of Plant Pathology, Indian Agricultural Research Institute, New Delhi-110 012, October 14–1.
Soybean (Glycine max (L.) Merr.), being a legume, possesses nodules on its root as miniature nitrogen fixing factories in which the inexhaustible stock of atmospheric nitrogen is fixed. Some of the nitrogen containing compounds of the nodules may move out into surrounding soil, thus improving the soil fertility.
Several viral diseases of soybean have been reported of which soybean mosaic disease is widely prevalent in Uttar Pradesh and Uttaranchal. This disease is caused by soybean mosaic virus (SMV). This virus severely affects plant growth, bacterial population and leghaemoglobin content of nodules of soybean plant. This present investigation was particularly limited to study the effect of SMV infection on nitrogen fixing efficiency of root nodules of soybean plant. SMV-infection significantly reduced the nitrogen content of the soil of diseased planted pots. The soil of the healthy planted pots had higher nitrogen content than the soil of the diseased planted pots throughout the experimental period.
