Tomato Yellow Leaf Curl Virus Infection Alters Bemisia tabaci MED (Hemiptera: Aleyrodidae) Vulnerability to Flupyradifurone

Authors

Baiming Liu
Evan L. Preisser, University of Rhode IslandFollow
Xiaoguo Jiao
Youjun Zhang

Document Type

Article

Date of Original Version

2020

Department

Biological Sciences

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.

Citation/Publisher Attribution

Liu, B., Preisser, E. L., Jiao, X., & Zhang, Y. (2020). Tomato Yellow Leaf Curl Virus Infection Alters Bemisia tabaci MED (Hemiptera: Aleyrodidae) Vulnerability to Flupyradifurone. Journal of Economic Entomology, 113(4), 1922-1926. https://doi.org/10.1093/jee/toaa118

Available at: https://doi.org/10.1093/jee/toaa118