Detection and Distribution of Latent Viruses in the Potato Cultivar Atlantic. Robert W. Goth, Research Plant Pathologist, USDA, Agricultural Research Service, Northeastern Region, Beltsville Area, Beltsville Agricultural Research Center, Beltsville, MD 20705. Raymon E. Webb, Research Plant Pathologist, USDA, Agricultural Research Service, Northeastern Region, Beltsville Area, Beltsville Agricultural Research Center, Beltsville, MD 20705. Plant Dis. 69:851-853. Accepted for publication 23 May 1985. 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, 1985. DOI: 10.1094/PD-69-851.

Enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) and an infectivity assay using the potato virus X (PVX) indicator plants, Gomphrena globosa and Datura stramonium var. tatula, were used to assay individual tubers and plants from 10 lots of Solanum tuberosum cv. Atlantic collected in Maine, Colorado, and Nebraska in a effort to determine presence of PVX, potato virus S (PVS), and potato virus M (PVM). PVX was not detected in any sample. All inoculation experiments to infect cultivar Altantic with PVX were unsuccessful. PVS was present in all plants of all samples. PVM was detected only in samples collected in Maine. The incidence of PVM ranged from 20% in foundation material to 90% in one commercial seed lot.