VIEW ARTICLE

Disease Detection and Losses

Infection of Cultivated Strawberries by Tomato Ringspot Virus. Richard H. Converse, Horticultural Crops Research Unit, Agricultural Research, Science and Education Administration, U.S. Department of Agriculture, and also Department of Botany and Plant Pathology, Oregon State University, Corvallis 97331; Phytopathology 71:1149-1152. Accepted for publication 13 February 1981. 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, 1981. DOI: 10.1094/Phyto-71-1149.

Tomato ringspot virus (TomRSV) was detected by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay in commercial strawberry cultivars Lassen, Olympus, Puget Beauty, and Sequoia during 19 mo of growth in a field known to be infested with viruliferous dagger nematodes (Xiphinema americanum). Eighteen cultivars were not infected by TomRSV in this test. Leaf symptoms were unreliable for virus detection; some infected plants were symptomless, but many showed reduced vigor and resembled plants infected by the aphidborne strawberry viruses. Field symptoms of TomRSV-infected Olympus often resembled those of Verticillium wilt. In leaflet-grafting tests in the greenhouse, TomRSV from strawberry and raspberry sources infected and caused reduction in vigor in Puget Beauty within 30 days. Parallel grafts to Shasta strawberry from both virus sources resulted in death of infected plants within 30 days, which indicated that differences in strawberry symptomatology were associated with host genotype rather than virus source or mode of inoculation. Tomato ringspot virus is probably a common, but unassessed, cause of crop loss wherever susceptible strawberry cultivars are planted in fields infested with viruliferous dagger nematodes.