An isolate of Sorghum mosaic virus (SrMV) affected plant growth and grain yield of Sorghum considerably. Sorghum seedlings, when inoculated at second and fourth leaf stages using viruliferous plant hopper (Peregrinus maidis) had premature death where as seedlings inoculated at 6, 8 and 10 leaf stage, had considerable reduction in mean plant height (70.67 cm), mean internode length (5.67 cm) in comparison to healthy plants respectively. In addition, there was considerable reduction in fresh and dry shoot and root biomass of infected plants. The latent period of SrMV in the host varied from 9 to 18 days depending on the stage of seedlings at inoculation. Upon artificial inoculation, under field conditions, significant reduction in grain yield up to 94.9% was observed when plants were inoculated at the fifth leaf stage in comparison to 70.2% loss at the 10-11th leaf stage respectively.
SrMV, Sorghum, growth, yield loss
