Journal of Economic Entomology (2020) 113, 1922-1926

Baiming Liu, Evan L. Preisser, Xiaoguo Jiao and Youjun Zhang (2020)
Tomato yellow leaf curl virus infection alters Bemisia tabaci MED (Hemiptera: Aleyrodidae) vulnerability to flupyradifurone
Journal of Economic Entomology 113 (4), 1922-1926
Abstract: The whitefly, Bemisia tabaci Gennadius, is a major phloem-feeding pest of agricultural crops that is also an important vector of many plant diseases. The B. tabaci Mediterranean ('MED') biotype is a particularly effective vector of Tomato yellow leaf curl virus (TYLCV), a devastating plant pathogen. Although insecticides play an important role in the control of MED and TYLCV, little is known about how TYLCV infection affects MED susceptibility to insecticides. We conducted research addressing how MED susceptibility to flupyradifurone, the first commercially available systemic control agent derived from the butenolide class of insecticides, was affected by TYLCV infection. We first conducted bioassays determining the LC₁₅ and LC₅₀ for control and viruliferous MED feeding on either water- or insecticide-treated plants. We next measured several demographic parameters of control and viruliferous MED exposed to either insecticide- or water-treated plants. TYLCV infection increased MED tolerance of flupyradifurone: the LC₁₅ and LC₅₀ of viruliferous MED were double that of uninfected MED. Viral infection also altered MED demographic responses to flupyradifurone, but in an inconsistent manner. Although the ability of TYLCV and other persistently transmitted viruses to benefit Bemisia via manipulation of host plant defense is well known, this appears to be the first example of virally mediated changes in vector susceptibility to an insecticide.
(The abstract is excluded from the Creative Commons licence and has been copied with permission by the publisher.)
Link to article at publishers website

Research topic(s) for pests/diseases/weeds:
transmission/dispersal of plant diseases

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Pest and/or beneficial records:

Beneficial	Pest/Disease/Weed	Crop/Product	Country	Quarant.
	Tomato yellow leaf curl virus
	Bemisia tabaci biotype MED