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Vector Relations

Efficiency and Selectivity of the Helper-Component-Mediated Aphid Transmission of Purified Potyviruses. Thomas P. Pirone, Department of Plant Pathology, University of Kentucky, Lexington 40546; Phytopathology 71:922-924. Accepted for publication 21 January 1981. Copyright 1981 The American Phytopathological Society. DOI: 10.1094/Phyto-71-922.

Aphids (Myzus persicae) transmitted purified potato virus Y (PVY) from suspensions that contained as little as 40 ng of virus per milliliter, in the presence of PVY helper component (HC). Transmission from the HC system is thus comparable in efficiency to mechanical inoculation and is 10³- to 10⁵-fold more efficient than aphid transmission of purified viruses that do not require HC. HC prepared from bean yellow mosiac virus (BYMV)-infected plants (BYMV-HC) effected the transmission of BYMV, as well as PVY and tobacco vein mottling virus (TVMV); but PVY-HC and TVMV-HC, although highly effective with both PVY and TVMV, were ineffective with BYMV, suggesting some specificity. Aphids consistently transmitted TVMV more often than PVY, when acquisition was from a mixture of PVY and TVMV, in the presence of TVMV-HC. In the presence of PVY-HC, however, the amount of transmission of each virus from a PVY-TVMV mixture was variable and seemed to depend on the virus preparations used. The HC-dependency system is extended to another aphid, A. gossypii, to two other viruses (TVMV and BYMV), and HC was obtained from plants (pepper and pea) other than tobacco. These findings further strengthen the case that HC-dependency may be general for aphid-plant-potyvirus combinations.