Contribution of soil components to adsorption of Pepper Mild Mottle Virus by Japanese soils

The Pepper Mild Mottle Virus (PMMoV) is a soil-borne virus that causes the mosaic disease to Capsicum ssp. This virus disease had been controlled by soil fumigation using methyl bromide, but the method was banned in 2005. Therefore, a new management and control technology that replaces methyl bromide is required. In the present study, the adsorption of PMMoV by soils that is considered to be one of the most important factors of the virus inactivation was examined. We used eight soil samples with different types of clay compositions and humus contents for the PMMoV adsorption experiments at three different pH levels (pH 4, 5 and 7). Large amounts of PMMoV particles were adsorbed by the soil samples with a low humus content at the low pH. This was attributed to the increase in the positive charges of the soil samples. On the other hand, low virus adsorptions were observed at the pH levels in the soils with a high organic matter content. There were close negative correlations (P < 0.05) between the PMMoV adsorption by the soils and the humus content of the soil samples. We considered that the inhibitory effect of humus against the virus adsorption is rather important in most soils in Japan.