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ARS Home » Pacific West Area » Wapato, Washington » Temperate Tree Fruit and Vegetable Research » Research » Publications at this Location » Publication #314651
Title: Assessing transmission of ‘Candidatus Liberibacter solanacearum’ haplotypes through seed potato

Author
item Munyaneza, Joseph - Joe
item Swisher Grimm, Kylie

Submitted to: Meeting Proceedings
Publication Type: Proceedings
Publication Acceptance Date: 2/24/2015
Publication Date: 7/7/2015
Citation: Munyaneza, J.E., Swisher, K.D. 2015. Assessing transmission of ‘Candidatus Liberibacter solanacearum’ haplotypes through seed potato . Meeting Proceedings. pp. 59-62.

Interpretive Summary: Zebra chip, a new and economically important disease of potato in the United States severely affects quality and yield of potato tubers and is caused by the newly discovered bacterium Liberibacter, vectored by the potato psyllid. Researchers at USDA-ARS Wapato in Washington assessed the impact of different genetic variants of the bacterium and its insect vector on the severity of the disease. It was determined that genetic variations in both Liberibacter and potato psyllid do not influence the defect severity caused by zebra chip in potato tubers. Information from this research will help potato producers reduce damage caused by zebra chip by equally managing different genetic populations of the disease pathogen and its insect vector.

Technical Abstract: Conflicting data has previously been reported concerning the impact of zebra chip disease transmission through seed tubers. These discrepancies may be due to the experimental design of each study, whereby different pathogen haplotypes, insect vector haplotypes, and potato plant varieties were used. In support of this, it has been suggested that the pathogen haplotypes induce different levels of zebra chip severity in potato. To address these factors that could have contributed to the conflicting results, we are conducting a large experiment to explore the impact of two ‘Candidatus Liberibacter solanacearum’ (Lso) haplotypes, three Bactericera cockerelli psyllid haplotypes, and eight potato varieties on zebra chip disease transmission through tubers. Initial results suggest that both Lso haplotypes A and B are capable of inducing severe disease symptoms, regardless of the psyllid haplotype used to vector the Lso. Based on our preliminary results, it is not likely that pathogen haplotype or insect vector haplotype is the reason for the previous conflicting results.