Abstract:

The outdated view of “three species of peony viruses” was corrected at first, whereas 17 species of viruses infecting peony (including tree peony and herbaceous peony) in the world was counted and analyzed. The research work on viral disease of peony dedicated by Chinese scholars was reviewed, including investigation about tobacco rattle virus (TRV) infecting peony; discovering several new viruses of peony such as peony leafroll-associated virus (PLRaV) and new host records for peony infected by some known virus such as apple stem grooving virus (ASGV) in recent years; a series of research progress about study on peony gene function using VIGS (virus induced gene silencing) technology. There were still many deficiencies in the basic research of peony viral disease in China, such as the lack of special funding opportunities for national projects; unknowing the background of viral disease occurrence in traditional peony cultivation centers; lacking deep research on the infection and transmission mechanism of the virus. Compared with western countries, the obvious disadvantages in the application of viral disease detection and diagnosis technology was that lower level technicians could not update the knowledge of disease diagnosis in time and could not completely understand the recent development of molecular detection technology for viral diseases. Therefore, it is suggested that molecular detection technology should be applied to carry out nationwide survey of peony viral disease, risk analysis and risk management of peony viral disease.

Key words: tree peony, herbaceous peony, tobacco rattle virus, peony leafroll-associated virus, detection, diagnosis, VIGS