VIEW ARTICLE

Vector Relations

Multiplication of the Oat Blue Dwarf Virus in the Aster Leafhopper. E. E. Banttari, Professor, Department of Plant Pathology, University of Minnesota, St. Paul 55108; R. J. Zeyen, Assistant Professor, Department of Plant Pathology, University of Minnesota, St. Paul 55108. Phytopathology 66:896-900. Accepted for publication 23 January 1976. DOI: 10.1094/Phyto-66-896.

Serial passage of the oat blue dwarf virus (OBDV) through eight populations of previously virus-free aster leafhoppers, maintained on OBDV-immune host plants, showed that the leafhoppers transmitted the virus at a dilution of 1 × 10^–18 when the original dilution end-point of the inoculum was 1 × 10^–5. Electron microscopic studies of 21 infected insects disclosed crystalline and paracrystalline aggregates of OBDV virion-sized particles in the cytoplasm of cells in the neural lamella of the supraesophageal ganglia and in fat body cells. The virus aggregates were similar to those observed previously in phloem of infected plants. The long minimum incubation period, no transovarial passage of virus, electron microscopic observations of OBDV aggregates in the vector, and the 1 × 10¹³ increase of virus in the vector during serial passage experiments lead to the conclusion that OBDV multiplies in its insect vector.