Insect Vectors (Hemiptera: Cixiidae) and Pathogens Associated with the Disease Syndrome "Basses Richesses" of Sugar Beet in France.

The syndrome "basses richesses" (SBR) is a disease of sugar beet in eastern France associated with two phloem-restricted, nonculturable plant pathogens: a stolbur phytoplasma and a γ-3 proteobacterium, here called SBR bacterium. Three planthopper (Hemiptera: Cixiidae) species were found to live near and within sugar beet fields in eastern France: Cixius wagneri, Hyalesthes obsoletus, and Pentastiridius leporinus. The role of these planthoppers in spreading the two pathogens to sugar beet was studied. Based on its abundance and high frequency of infection with the SBR bacterium, P. leporinus was considered to be the economic vector of SBR disease. C. wagneri, the primary vector of 'Candidatus Phlomobacter fragariae' to strawberry in western France, also was found to be infected by the SBR bacterium and to transmit the pathogen to sugar beet. Neither C. wagneri nor P. leporinus were infected by stolbur phytoplasma. Populations of H. obsoletus living on bindweed (Convolvulus arvensis) and nettle (Urtica dioica) collected near sugar beet fields did not carry the SBR bacterium, but were highly infected with two restriction fragment length polymorphism-differentiable stolbur phytoplasma isolates. In transmission assays, only the bindweed phytoplasma isolate was transmissible to and pathogenic on sugar beet. When compared with controls, the bindweed stolbur phytoplasma and SBR bacterium similarly reduced the biomass of sugar beet plants, but the phytoplasma caused greater reductions in taproot biomass and sugar content than the SBR bacterium.

Insect injection and artificial feeding bioassays to test the vector specificity of flavescence dorée phytoplasma.

ABSTRACT The specificity of vector transmission of Flavescence dorée phytoplasma (FDP) was tested by injecting FDP, extracted from laboratory-reared infective Euscelidius variegatus, into specimens of 15 other hemipteran insect species collected in European vineyards. Concentrations of viable phytoplasma extracts and latency in vectors were monitored by injection of healthy-reared E. variegatus leafhoppers. Based on these preliminary results, insects were injected by using phytoplasma extracts that ensured the highest rate of FDP acquisition and transmission by E. variegatus. Transmission into an artificial diet through a Parafilm membrane about 3 weeks after insect injection was attempted. FDP-injected insects that belonged to 15 hemipteran species were confined in cages and fed through the membrane for a 4- to 5-day inoculation access period. FDP DNA was detected by polymerase chain reaction (PCR) in the feeding buffer fed upon by Anoplotettix fuscovenosus, Aphrodes makarovi,E. variegatus, and Euscelis incisus. PCR amplification with specific primers detected FDP DNA in injected insects of all test insect species. Band intensity was positively correlated with the transmissibility of FDP. Transmission of FDP to plants by feeding was confirmed for Anoplotettix fuscovenosus, E. variegatus, and Euscelis incisus, but not for Aphrodes makarovi. Our results suggest that vector competency of FDP is restricted to specimens belonging to the family Cicadellidae, subfamily Deltocephalinae.

Effect of two strains of Flavescence dorée phytoplasma on the survival and fecundity of the experimental leafhopper vector Euscelidius variegatus Kirschbaum.

We have investigated the influence on longevity and fecundity of Flavescence dorée phytoplasma (FDP), the agent of a grapevine yellows disease, in the experimental vector Euscelidius variegatus Kirschbaum. Late instar nymphs were exposed to one or the other of two strains of FDP (FD92 and FD2000) by feeding on infected broad bean (Vicia faba L.) or on healthy broad bean or maize (Zea mays L.) for an acquisition access period of 13 days. Detection of FDP in individual insects was done with PCR assays and revealed that almost all exposed leafhoppers had acquired FDP, for both FD92 and FD2000 strains. FDP infection significantly reduced the life span of males and females (ANOVA of the quartiles of survival distribution and Weibull scale parameter). FDP-exposed females produced significantly fewer nymphs. The two FDP strains had similar effects on reduction of survival and fecundity of leafhoppers. There was no significant differences in longevity of E. variegatus males exposed to FD broad bean than held on healthy broad bean or maize, but female survival and fecundity were reduced when they fed on maize versus healthy broad bean.