Poster Session: New and Emerging Diseases-Viruses

444-P

A potential vector of Blueberry necrotic ring blotch virus and symptoms on various host genotypes.
C. BURKLE (1), J. W. Olmstead (1), P. F. Harmon (1)
(1) University of Florida, Gainesville, FL, U.S.A.

Blueberry necrotic ring blotch has recently been associated with the presence of the newly described Blueberry necrotic ring blotch virus (BNRBV). A range of symptoms has been observed on a variety of plant accessions in the blueberry breeding program at the University of Florida. A scale to quantify disease incidence and severity on blueberry plants affected by BNRBV was developed and used to assess disease symptoms on a variety of genotypes in the University of Florida blueberry breeding program. Some plant accessions were more severely affected than others, which may have relevance to breeding efforts for blueberry resistance to BNRBV. An isolate of BNRBV was maintained in a greenhouse facility where transmission of the virus to healthy plants was observed. An eriophyid mite was associated with the symptomatic plants, and the same mite was observed in commercial fields and research plots in Alachua and Marion County, Florida where disease was prevalent. Adult mites were on average 118 µm in length and 47 µm in width. Based on morphological characteristics, the mite is a potential new species in the genus Calacarus and is a vagrant foliar feeder. Additional research is underway to describe this potential new species and to establish whether this mite vectors BNRBV.