Experimental Hosts of the Beet Leafhopper-Transmitted Virescence Agent. D. A. Golino, Research Plant Pathologist, USDA-ARS, Department of Plant Pathology, University of California, Davis. G. N. Oldfield, and D. J. Gumpf. Lecturer, and Professor, Department of Plant Pathology, University of California, Riverside 92521. Plant Dis. 73:850-854. Accepted for publication 31 May 1989. 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-73-0850.

The vector Circulifer tenellus was used to inoculate 60 species of plants with the beet leafhopper-transmitted virescence agent (BLTVA). A wide range of host reactions was seen in 43 species, including floral gigantism, host induction response, internode elongation, internode shortening, leaf deformation, leaf mottling, proliferation, stunting, tip necrosis, virescence, wilting, and yellowing. No nonsymptomatic hosts were found, but 17 plant species did not develop symptoms of infection after exposure to inoculative leafhoppers; this included all the monocots tested. A number of plants that have been reported as hosts of economically important MLO diseases also proved to be hosts of BLTVA. In seven host species, flowering was induced in plants grown under environmental conditions that would normally be noninductive for flowering.