BIOLOGICAL FACTORS INFLUENCING THE TRANSMISSION OF POTATO LEAFROLL VIRUS BY DIFFERENT APHID SPECIES

Macrosiphum euphorbiae, collected in the field from potato plants infected with potato leafroll virus (PLRV), transmitted the virus to fewer potato plants in a field trial than did laboratory-reared Myzus persicae. In the laboratory, M. persicae was the only efficient vector of PLRV from Physalis floridana seedlings, potato sprouts or excised leaves to P. floridana. Two clones of M. euphorbiae and one clone of Aulacorthum solani transmitted PLRV from infected potato plants to Nicotiana clevelandii as efficiently as M. persicae but a clone of Aphis gossypii was an inefficient PLRV vector. An isolate of PLRV, which M. persicae transmitted inefficiently from potato to N. clevelandii. was also transmitted inefficiently by M. euphorbiae and A. solani.