Citrus Tatter Leaf Virus Isolated from Lily

Abstract

Yellowing disease of lily (Lilium longiflorum) was first found in June, 1975, in Kushu district in Japan. The causal virus was transmitted by inoculation with sap to 33 species in 11 plant families including lily. Chenopodium quinoa was characterized by mosaic and stunt and hence is useful as an indicator host. The virus is very flexuous filamentous particles of 650×12nm in phosphotungstate, with obvious crossbanding of pitch 3.8nm. Attempts to transmit the virus by aphid (Myzus persicae) failed, but the virus was transmitted through seeds of lily and C. quinoa. When the virus was inoculated to the young seedlings of C. quinoa, the percentage of seed-borne infection was observed up to 60.0%. Leaf extracts lost infectivity after 4-8 days at 22C, 10min at 65-70C and after dilution of 10^-4-10^-5. In thin sections of the virusinfected leaves of C. quinoa, the particles were observed only in phloem cells. The virus was serologically closely related to citrus tatter leaf virus (CTLV) which was found to infect lilies symptomlessly. From the results mentioned above, the causal virus was identified as CTLV.