Field Transmission of Tulip Breaking Virus and Serologically Related Potyviruses in Tulip. John Hammond, Research Plant Pathologist, USDA-ARS, Florist and Nursery Crops Laboratory, BARC-West, Beltsville, MD 20705. Gary A Chastagner, Associate Plant Pathologist, Washington State University, Research and Extension Center, 7612 Pioneer Way East, Puyallup 98371-4998. Plant Dis. 73:331-336. Accepted for publication 2 December 1988. 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, 1989. DOI: 10.1094/PD-73-0331.

Tulip breaking virus (TBV) and related potyviruses were aphid-transmitted in tulips in Washington state throughout the growing seasons of 1985 and 1986. Aphids were trapped at sites where healthy tulips were exposed adjacent to TBV-infected tulips. Virus infection was detected serologically with monoclonal antibodies and polyclonal antisera using an antigen-coated form of indirect enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA). Transmission was correlated with occurrence of Macrosiphum euphorbiae and Dysaphis tulipae, known vectors of TBV. Differential ELISA reactions with the monoclonal antibodies and polyclonal antisera indicated the occurrence in tulips of potyvirus isolates serologically related to, but distinct from, TBV. Infections detected by ELISA correlated well (87%; 27 of 31 affected plants from the 1986 exposure) with occurrence of flower break symptoms in the exposed tulips. In two cases, virus infection was detected by ELISA in the absence of flower break, and no virus was detected in two other plants with flower break.