Disease Note.

Six New Hosts of Tomato Spotted Wilt Virus in Texas. G. L. Schuster, Department of Plant Pathology and Microbiology and Texas Agricultural Experiment Station, College Station 77843. R. S. Halliwell, Department of Plant Pathology and Microbiology and Texas Agricultural Experiment Station, College Station 77843. Plant Dis. 78:100. Accepted for publication 10 September 1993. Copyright 1994 The American Phytopathological Society. DOI: 10.1094/PD-78-0100E.

Tomato spotted wilt virus (TSWV) diseases have become economic problems of numerous crop plants in Texas. Weeds and winter crop plants have been implicated as overwintering\hosts for TSWV. Thirty species of plants indigenous to south Texas were found infected naturally or were experimentally infected with TSWV. Six of the 30 species tested for infection by DAS-ELISA, electron microscopy of embedded tissue, and indicator host (primarily Nicotiana benthamiana Domin.) reaction are reported as new hosts (1,2). New hosts experimentally infected with TS WV-L included cotton (Gossypium barbadense L. and G. hirsutum L.) and mahoe hibiscus (Hibiscus tiliaceus L). Texas bluebonnet (Lupinus subcarnosus Hook), small flower morning-glory (Jacquemontia tamnifolia (L.) Griseb), and black-eyed Susan (Rudbeckia hirta L.) were naturally infected. Although weed hosts have been considered as a major source of TSWV, the year-round cropping of TSWV-susceptible plants in south Texas may overshadow the importance of weeds as the major virus resource for the thrips vector.