VIEW ARTICLE

Vector Relations

Interference Between Two Luteoviruses in an Aphid: Lack of Reciprocal Competition. W. F. Rochow, Research plant pathologist, Agricultural Research Service, U.S. Department of Agriculture, and professor, Department of Plant Pathology, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY 14853; Irmgard Muller(2), and F. E. Gildow(3). (2)Research support specialist, Department of Plant Pathology, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY 14853; (3)Assistant professor of plant pathology, University of California, Berkeley 94720. Phytopathology 73:919-922. Accepted for publication 19 January 1983. This article is in the public domain and not copyrightable. It may be freely reprinted with customary crediting of the source. The American Phytopathological Society, 1983. DOI: 10.1094/Phyto-73-919.

Transmission rate of the PAV isolate of barley yellow dwarf virus was consistently reduced compared to that of controls when clones of the aphid vector (Sitobion (=Macrosiphum) avenae from either New York or California) acquired the MAV isolate before PAV. In one test, transmission of the PAV isolate was reduced, even though it had been acquired before the MAV. No corresponding consistent interference by PAV in the aphid transmission of MAV was detected when the interaction was tested four ways in the reverse order. Transmission rate of MAV was not less than that of the controls in any of 13 experiments when S. avenae fed first on PAV-infected plants before acquiring MAV. Similarly, when MAV was injected into vectors in 10 other experiments, consistent interference in transmission of MAV by PAV did not occur. Despite lack of reciprocal interference between MAV and PAV in the vector, study of this luteovirus interaction remains a useful approach to understanding mechanisms of circulative virus transmission by aphids.