Plant innate immunity against RNA viruses is mediated by dsRNA-triggered gene silencing.Here we adopt next generation sequencing technique to sequence the siRNA produced in the disease maize plants,followed by identifying the potential RNA virus sequences via bioinformatics analysis.31 samples were subjected to initial ELISA screening prior to being analyzed by high throughput sequencing of small RNA.No positive sampies were detected using the antibodies against Maize streak virus,Maize chlorotic dwarf virus,Sugar cane mosaic virus and Maize dwarf mosaic virus,respectively.High throughput sequencing of the siRNA indicated that the maize samples were infected by at least four viruses including Cucumber mosaic virus (CMV),Rice black streaked dwarf virus (RBSDV),Pennisetum mosaic virus (PenMV) and a new virus named Maize yellow dwarf virus-RMV2 (MYDV-RMV2),which shares high sequence identity (79% at the nucleotide level) with Maize yellow dwarf virus-RMV (MYDV-RMV).This study presented a new strategy to detect RNA viruses in naturally infected maize plants,which could also be applied to virus surveillance in maize.