VIEW ARTICLE

Etiology

Transmission and Physical Properties of the Causal Agent of Mosaico Amarillo del Tomate (Tomato Yellow Mosaic). R. C. de Uzcátegui, Laboratorio de Virus de Plantas, Centro de Microbiologîa y Biologîa Celular, Instituto Venezolano de Investigaciones Cientîficas, Apartado. 1.827, Caracas, Venezuela; Ramón Lastra, Laboratorio de Virus de Plantas, Centro de Microbiologîa y Biologîa Celular, Instituto Venezolano de Investigaciones Cientîficas, Apartado. 1.827, Caracas, Venezuela. Phytopathology 68:985-988. Accepted for publication 29 December 1977. Copyright © 1978 The American Phytopathological Society, 3340 Pilot Knob Road, St. Paul, MN 55121. All rights reserved.. DOI: 10.1094/Phyto-68-985.

Mosaico amarillo del tomate (MAT) (tomato yellow mosaic) is an important disease affecting tomatoes in Venezuela. The causal agent was mechanically transmitted to several species of the family Solanaceae, with the aid of 0.1 M potassium phosphate alone or containing 1% magnesium trisilicate. The use of 2-mercaptoethanol, dithiothreitol, and sodium diethyldithio-carbamate in the transmission experiments also increased the probability of transmission and kept the inoculum infectious for a longer period of time. The MAT agent is very labile; longevity in vitro is no longer than 15 min. The thermal inactivation point is between 40 and 42 C. The white fly Bemisia tabaci is an efficient vector of the agent. After an acquisition period of 2 hr and a latent period of 20 hr, the vectors were able to transmit the agent sporadically for a maximum of seven days.