Surveys of Viruliferous Alate Aphid of Plum pox virus in Prunus mume Orchards in Japan

Abstract

Plum pox virus (PPV) is transmitted by infected buds and aphids. It is important to analyze the outbreak trends and viruliferous rate of aphids in areas where the occurrence of PPV is reported, so as to develop strategies for disease control. Between April 2011 and December 2012, yellow insect-trapping adhesive plates were placed for 2 days at a time each week in an area where PPV is occurring in Japan. Outbreak trends were analyzed based on the trapped alate aphid samples, and up to 50 of them were tested per week to identify species and determine the rate of viruliferous specimens. Although the number of aphids varied according to survey year, three peaks were noticeable in each year. Based on the sequence data for the mitochondrial cytochrome c oxidase I region, approximately 40 different species of aphid were trapped in both years. Of the five dominant species of aphids identified during the 2 years, Aphis spiraecola was trapped in large numbers. PPV-positive aphids were higher in fall onward, when the total number of trapped aphids decreased, than in spring and summer, when a larger number of aphids was caught. PPV transmission tests using the most abundant species revealed that A. spiraecola, A. craccivora, A. gossypii, and Rhopalosiphum maidis were transmitters, although A. spiraecola is likely of epidemiological significance.

Apricot aphid, Myzus mumecola (Matsumura), a new and important pest of apricot in Hungary

“…Our findings, obtained with CAPS analysis of the PP3/ PCI amplified PCR product which is used for subgroup typing of PPV isolates (Glasa et al 2002;Ádám et al 2015), are in accordance with previously published results where the most prevalent strain of PPV in apricot in Hungary was PPV-D (Sihelská et al 2017). Although M. mumecola has lower transmission rate (12%) than M. persicae (24.4%) (Kimura et al 2016), it has the potential to be an important vector of PPV because of its high abundance and high rate of aphids carrying PPV.…”

“…(Pashchenko 1988), in India on Prunus cornuta Steudel (Basu and Raychaudhuri, 1976) and in the Himalayas on P. armeniaca and P. mume (Chakrabarti et al 1970;Chakrabarti and Sarkar 2001). Based on the laboratory tests of Kimura et al (2016), M. mumecola has the ability to transmit Plum pox virus (PPV) on P. mume, albeit it does not belong to the abundant aphid species in the P. mume orchards in Japan.…”

First report of Myzus mumecola (Matsumura, 1917) in Europe

“…Another evaluation to be made is the degree of involvement of the pest in the transmission of the Sharka virus ( Plum pox virus , PPV). Recently, in a laboratory trial, the ability of M. mumecola to acquire and transmit PPV among small apricot plants was demonstrated, with an efficiency similar to that of M. persicae (Kimura et al ., ). Finally, further investigations should be carried out to understand how this Oriental species arrived in Europe.…”

Aphid Transmission of Potyvirus: The Largest Plant-Infecting RNA Virus Genus

“…Furthermore, the dispersal distance analysis suggests that PPV-infected aphids preferentially spread PPV beyond 90 m, i.e., away from infected trees, rather than to neighboring trees—thus subsequently encouraging the secondary spread of PPV over large orchard landscapes [ 111 ]. Field surveys in Japan showed a peak of PPV-viruliferous winged aphids occur in fall, when a catch in aphid traps are smaller compared to spring and summer [ 112 ]. This could be attributed to the overall increase in the number of winged aphids feeding on PPV-infected prunes and/or the enhanced movement of viruliferous aphids over the non-viruliferous ones in the fall.…”