VIEW ARTICLE

Etiology

Partial Purification and Serology of Sugarcane Mild Mosaic Virus, A Mealybug-Transmitted Closterolike Virus. B. E. L. Lockhart, Department of Plant Pathology, University of Minnesota, St. Paul 55108; L. J. C. Autrey(2), and J. C. Comstock(3). (2)Plant Pathology Division, Mauritius Sugar Industry Research Institute, Reduit, Mauritius; (3)USDA Sugarcane Field Station, Canal Point, FL 33438. Phytopathology 82:691-695. Accepted for publication 3 March 1992. Copyright 1992 The American Phytopathological Society. DOI: 10.1094/Phyto-82-691.

A previously undescribed closterolike virus with particles measuring 1,500–1,600 nm × 12 nm was found in 11 cultivars of sugarcane (Saccharum sp.) from Florida, Mauritius, and Malawi. The virus, which was named sugarcane mild mosaic virus (SCMMV), occurred in all cases in mixed infections with sugarcane bacilliform virus (SCBV). SCMMV was transmitted by mechanical inoculation to sugarcane, rice, Sorghum halepense, and S. bicolor with partially purified, concentrated extracts but not with crude sap. SCMMV was not transmitted by Melanaphis sacchari but was transmitted to both sugarcane and rice by the pink sugarcane mealybug, Saccharicoccus sacchari. SCMMV infection caused very mild mosaic or no foliar symptoms in sugarcane, no apparent symptoms in rice, and occasional chlorotic flecking in S. halepense. SCMMV could be detected by enzyme immunosorbent assay and immunosorbent electron microscopy and was unrelated serologically to six other clostero or closterolike viruses, including grapevine virus A. which is mealybug-transmitted, and to pineapple mealybug wilt associated virus.