FIRST REPORT OF BEAN COMMON MOSAIC VIRUS (BCMV) INFECTING COWPEA VIGNA UNGUICULATA IN IRAQ
Marwan Jead Khalaf and Nawers A.S. Alkuwaiti
Bean common mosaic virus (BCMV) was investigated in a cowpea field at Al-Jadriya/Baghdad. Sixteen leaf samples were collected from symptomatic plants and screened for BCMV infection using nested RT-PCR. About 500 bp DNA fragments of expected size were amplified from 2 samples only indicating they were BCMV infected. Sequence analysis confirmed BCMV detection when sequences obtained shared 98% maximum nucleotide identity with the equivalent GenBank sequence from China (MN786956). To the best of our Knowledge this is the first report of BCMV on cowpea in Iraq.