South Korea is the center for the origin and emanation of soybean mosaic virus with Bayesian phylogeographic inference.

Soybean mosaic virus (SMV) is one of the most serious viral pathogens, causing reductions in soybean yield worldwide. Using more than 350 time-stamped SMV coat protein encoding gene sequences from more than a dozen countries and regions in Central Asia, East Asia, North America, South America, and Western Europe, we investigated the phylodynamics of SMV to understand the origin and dispersal of the virus via Bayesian phylogeographic inference. Our analysis revealed that the most recent common SMV ancestor occurred in approximately 1511 (95% credibility interval, 1075-1848) Common Era, and the evolutionary rate of the coat protein gene was 3.751 × 10 substitutions/site/year (95% credibility interval, 2.694 × 10-4.879 × 10). Our results suggest that the SMV population may have originated in South Korea and that South Korea has been the major center for the dissemination of SMV. The virus first began to emigrate from Korea to China in the late 17th century, and it took more than 150 years to spread from South Korea to Japan. However, after the 20th century, SMV spread from South Korea to South America, North America, and Western Europe. Furthermore, our results suggest that the migration history of SMV may be related to important human historical events.IMPORTANCESoybean mosaic virus (SMV) is a pathogen that severely affects soybean production areas around the world and can cause up to an 86% reduction in soybean yield. This article provides a comprehensive reconstruction of the phylogeographic history of SMV. Our results revealed the geographic origin and migration history of SMV on a global scale and that the migration history of SMV is correlated with human factors. These results have important implications for the sustainable management of soybean production in the field.