Yellow Vein Mosaic of Honeysuckle (Lonicera japonica Thunb.), a Disease caused by Tobacco Leaf Curl Virus in Japan
1979 Volume 45 Issue 1 Pages 62-69
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1979 Volume 45 Issue 1 Pages 62-69
A study was made of yellow vein mosaic of honeysuckle (Lonicera japonica Thunb.), characterized by yellow net symptoms which are often accompanied by enations along veins on the undersurface of the leaves.
The disease was not mechanically transmissible, but was transmitted by a whitefly, Bemisia tabaci Gen. and by grafting the diseased plant to healthy honeysuckle and to five solanaceous species. The symptoms that appeared on some solanaceous plants were very similar to those induced by infection with tobacco leaf curl virus (TLCV). The disease was transmitted from artificially infected tomato to healthy honeysuckle which developed yellow vein mosaic indistinguishable from the original diseased honeysuckle.
Electron microscopic examination of a partially purified virus preparation from diseased, but not from healthy leaves, showed the presence of polyhedral particles, about 18nm in diameter, that usually occurred as paired structures, 15-20×25-30nm, in negatively stained preparation. Virus-like particles were found in nuclei of phloem cells of infected tissue in ultrathin sections. The changes in the nuclei including segregation of the granular and fibrillar regions of the nucleoli and the appearance of fibrillar rings were also found.
In agar gel diffusion tests, partially purified virus preparations from naturally infected honeysuckle reacted positively with antiserum against TLCV (NL-3 isolate), although spurs were formed with the homologous antigen. They did not react either with antisera to arabis mosaic or cucumber mosaic viruses.
The results obtained here suggest that the causal agent of yellow vein mosaic disease of honeysuckle is a virus identical to or a strain of TLCV which is known to induce yellow dwarf disease on tomato and leaf curl disease on tobacco in Japan. An aleyrodid, Bemisia lonicerae Takahashi, a common species in Japan, is usually found on naturally grown honeysuckle and may be a vector of TLCV.
