Abstract
Greenhouse whitefly, Trialeurodes vaporariorum (Westwood) was first reported in Japan (at Higashihiroshima) by Nakazawa et al. (1974). The whitefly has been reported to be a vector of beet pseudo-yellows virus or sunflower virus, and a supposed vector of tobacco leaf curl virus (TLCV). In this paper we describe the results of experiments on the transmission of TLCV by the whitefly collected at Higashihiroshima. TLCV-infected tobacco plants used as virus source showed leaf symptoms of leaf curl and enation. TLCV could be transmitted by grafting from these tobacco plants to healthy plants of tobacco or tomato. In thin sections of leaves from a tomato plant infected with TLCV by grafting, virus-like spherical particles of about 23-26nm in diameter were found to exist singly and randomly in the cytoplasm of phloem parenchyma cells under an electron microscope. The transmission of TLCV by the whitefly was tested on tobacco or tomato plants. Experiments were made by varying the number of whiteflies used for each transmission, and the period of fasting before feeding, acquisition feeding, and inoculation feeding. The results obtained, however, showed that TLCV could not be transmitted from TLCV-infected plants to healthy plants by the greenhouse whitefly.
