VIEW ARTICLE

Effects of Tetracycline on the Transmission and Pathogenicity of the Western X Disease Agent in its Insect and Plant Hosts. P. W. Amin, Research Assistant, Division of Entomology, University of California, Berkeley 94720; D. D. Jensen, Professor, Division of Entomology, University of California, Berkeley 94720. Phytopathology 61:696-702. Accepted for publication 22 January 1971. DOI: 10.1094/Phyto-61-696.

Treatment of diseased celery plants with tetracycline resulted in a remission of Western X disease (WX) symptoms. Fewer Colladonus montanus leaf-hoppers acquired the WX agent when fed on treated plants than when fed on diseased controls. Tetracycline, acquired by feeding or injection into inoculative leafhoppers, reduced WX transmission by vectors in proportion to numbers of injections or feeding time on the antibiotic. Tetracycline also extended the incubation period of WX in the leafhopper vectors, and such insects lived longer than did untreated, infective controls. After feeding on tetracycline, diseased leafhoppers laid more eggs, on the average, than did untreated diseased controls.