Premium
Leafhopper transmission of Rhynchosia little leaf, a disease associated with mycoplasma‐like organisms in Jamaica
Author(s) -
DABEK A. J.
Publication year - 1983
Publication title -
annals of applied biology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.677
H-Index - 80
eISSN - 1744-7348
pISSN - 0003-4746
DOI - 10.1111/j.1744-7348.1983.tb02780.x
Subject(s) - biology , leafhopper , wilt disease , botany , phloem , horticulture , hemiptera
SUMMARY Little leaf disease of Rhynchosia minima (RLL) in Jamaica is reported for the first time. The presence of phloem‐restricted MLO in diseased but not healthy plants, the remission of symptoms induced in RLL‐affected plants with soil drenches of tetracycline, but not penicillin, and the transmission of disease‐associated MLO to R. minima test plants, suggests that RLL has an MLO aetiology. RLL is vectored by the cicadellid leafhopper Ollarianus balli , for which R. minima represents the specific field host. Healthy colonies of O. balli produced from eggs oviposited on the RLL‐immune weed Asystasia gangetica suggest that RLL is not transovarially transmitted. O. balli acquired the RLL agent after access to infected plants for 5 days (shorter feeds were not tried), and there was a maximum latent period in the leafhopper of 21 days. Of the O. balli collected from heavily‐infected field stands of RLL, 35% transmitted the disease, while, of those reared on RLL in captivity for 14–16 days, 56% transmitted. Male and female O. balli transmitted equally efficiently, while nymphs were less frequent vectors. O. balli also infected Cajanus cajan , an important small scale subsistence crop in Jamaica, and Catharanthus roseus. It did not, however, transmit coconut lethal yellowing (CLY) disease to test palms after natural or deliberate acquisition‐feeding on RLL, acquisition‐feeding on CLY‐affected palms, or, after injection with CLY‐affected phloem exudate. There was thus no evidence that RLL is related to CLY or that O. balli can act as a vector of CLY.