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ARS Home » Southeast Area » Charleston, South Carolina » Vegetable Research » Research » Publications at this Location » Publication #413666
Research Project: Basic and Applied Approaches for Pest Management in Vegetable Crops

Location: Vegetable Research

Title: Tracking sweet potato leaf curl virus through field production: Implications for sustainable sweetpotato production and breeding practices

Author
item Andreason, Sharon
item MCKENZIE-REYNOLDS, PETRINA - Orise Fellow
item Whitley, Kaitlyn
item Coffey, John
item Simmons, Alvin
item Wadl, Phillip

Submitted to: Plants
Publication Type: Peer Reviewed Journal
Publication Acceptance Date: 4/23/2024
Publication Date: 5/2/2024
Citation: Andreason, S.A., Mckenzie-Reynolds, P., Whitley, K.M., Coffey, J., Simmons, A.M., Wadl, P.A. 2024. Tracking sweet potato leaf curl virus through field production: Implications for sustainable sweetpotato production and breeding practices. Plants. 13:1267. https://doi.org/10.3390/plants13091267.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.3390/plants13091267

Interpretive Summary: Sweet potato leaf curl virus causes one of the most destructive diseases of sweetpotato production in the U.S. and worldwide. Sweetpotato planted for commercial production and breeding is often infected with this insect transmitted virus during the growing season. In this study, infection was tracked throughout two years of growing seasons, and early planting was demonstrated to remain largely free of this virus due to low insect vector pressure. This finding impacts sweetpotato cultivation practices and will be of interest to sweetpotato growers, breeders, and industry.

Technical Abstract: Sweet potato leaf curl virus (SPLCV) is a whitefly-transmitted begomovirus infecting sweetpotato and other morning glory (Convolvulaceae) species worldwide. The virus is widespread at the USDA, ARS, U.S. Vegetable Laboratory (USVL), and testing of germplasm maintained in the breeding program indicates nearly 100% infection in storage roots of materials propagated for at least four years. Prior to the public release of new germplasm, viruses must be eliminated via laborious and time-consuming meristem-tip culture. The identification of virus-free seedlings early in the selection process can offer an alternative to meristem-tip culture. In this study, we investigated the transmission of SPLCV over two years of consecutive field plantings (early and late) of sweetpotato. While SPLCV is endemic at the USVL, virus transmission pressure over the typical cultivation season is unknown, and avoidance of virus transmission paired with the selection and maintenance of clean material may be a viable alternative to virus elimination. In 2022, the storage roots of 39 first-year seedling (FYS) selections were tested for SPLCV after early-season cultivation, revealing a single selection (2.6%) with a positive test. Similar testing was conducted in 2023 with no SPLCV-positive FYS selections detected. To further assess SPLCV acquisition in the field, replicated late-season plantings of each selected FYS (n = 37) were monitored from planting to harvest. Testing was conducted at 60 and 120 days after planting (DAP). Approximately 35% of the bulk samples were infected at 60 DAP, and infection increased to 52.3% by 120 DAP. Testing of individuals within selected positive bulked samples did not support 100% infection at harvest. Altogether, these results demonstrate that SPLCV transmission during early planting is sufficiently low to facilitate the maintenance of virus-free selections, offering an alternative to virus cleaning and a cultivation strategy that may be leveraged for production.