Millet can be infected with several viruses if grown as a weed on crop fields

Millet is a dangerous weed in Hungary. Lack of seed dormancy helps it to spread easily and be present at maize, wheat and other crop fields. Our previous report revealed the possibility that millet can also play a role as a virus reservoir. In that study we detected the presence of several viruses in millet using DAS ELISA. Because serological methods can only detect the presence of the investigated particular pathogens, we suspected that other, previously unknown viruses can also be present in this weed. To investigate this theory, we randomly sampled two locations and collected millets showing stunting, chlorosis, and striped leaves and investigated the presence of viruses using small RNA HTS as a diagnostic method. Our result confirmed the widespread presence of wheat streak mosaic virus at both locations. Moreover, barley yellow striate mosaic virus and barley virus G were also identified, which have not been described from Hungary before. As these viruses can cause severe diseases on wheat, their presence on a weed mean a potential infection risk. Our study indicates that the presence of millets on the fields needs a special control in order to prevent emergence of new diseases at crop fields. Overall design: 2 libraries from symptomatic Panicum miliaceum from two different areas