VIEW ARTICLE

Vector Relations

Transmission of Two Purified Carlaviruses by the Pea Aphid. Kenneth A. Weber, Graduate research assistant, U.S. Department of Agriculture, Science and Education Administration, Agriculture Research, Oregon State University, Corvallis 97331, Present address of the senior author: Department of Plant Pathology, University of Missouri, Columbia 65201; Richard O. Hampton, research plant pathologist, Department of Botany and Plant Pathology, Oregon State University, Corvallis 97331. Phytopathology 70:631-633. Accepted for publication 10 December 1979. 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, 1980. DOI: 10.1094/Phyto-70-631.

Pea aphids (Acyrthosiphon pisum [Harris]) were able to transmit purified carlaviruses, pea streak virus (PSV) and red clover vein mosaic virus (RCVMV) after acquisition through membranes. Purity of virus preparations was monitored by ultraviolet spectrophotometry and sodium dodecyl sulphate-polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis. Aphids also were able to transmit both viruses after feeding through an artificial membrane on crude sap extracts from infected plants. Purified PSV was more readily aphid transmissible than was purified RCVMV. There was no evidence that a second substance, acting as a helper agent to facilitate aphid transmission, was present. This is the first report of a purified filamentous virus being transmitted by aphids in the absence of accessory factors.