The aim of the present study is to compare the biological and molecular properties of Ukrainian soybean mosaic virus (SMV) isolates with those of known strains or isolates from other countries, and to trace their possible origin. The methods of mechanical inoculation, reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction, DNA sequencing and phylogenetic analysis have been used. Results. Five SMV isolates have been collected and biologically purified from breeding plots in Vinnitsa region of Ukraine. It has been found that all these isolates show the same reaction patterns when infecting 11 differential soybean cultivars. Phylogenetic analysis of sequences of the coat protein coding region and P1 coding region revealed strong genetic relationships between representative Ukrainian (UA1Gr) and SMV-VA2 isolates which together were sorted in one clade with G2 strain. The investigation of sequence identity showed that different genomic regions of SMV were under different evolutionary constraints. Conclusions. SMV, isolated in Ukraine for the first time, belongs to the G2 strain group that is widespread in North America. The SMV isolates obtained in this work may be employed in the Ukrainian national breeding programs to create soybean with durable virus resistance.

Keywords: Soybean mosaic virus, Potyvirus, Glycine max, nucleotide sequences, phylogenetic analysis.