The Three-Cornered Alfalfa Hopper, Spissistilus festinus, Is a Vector of Grapevine Red Blotch Virus in Vineyards

Madison T Flasco; Victoria Hoyle; Elizabeth J Cieniewicz; Greg Loeb; Heather McLane; Keith Perry; Marc F Fuchs

doi:10.3390/v15040927

The Three-Cornered Alfalfa Hopper, Spissistilus festinus, Is a Vector of Grapevine Red Blotch Virus in Vineyards

Viruses. 2023 Apr 7;15(4):927. doi: 10.3390/v15040927.

Authors

Madison T Flasco¹, Victoria Hoyle¹, Elizabeth J Cieniewicz², Greg Loeb³, Heather McLane¹, Keith Perry⁴, Marc F Fuchs¹

Affiliations

¹ School of Integrative Plant Science, Plant Pathology and Plant-Microbe Biology, Cornell University, Geneva, NY 14456, USA.
² Plant and Environmental Sciences, Clemson University, Clemson, SC 29634, USA.
³ Department of Entomology, Cornell University, Geneva, NY 14456, USA.
⁴ School of Integrative Plant Science, Plant Pathology and Plant-Microbe Biology, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY 14853, USA.

Abstract

Spissistilus festinus (Hemiptera: Membracidae) transmit grapevine red blotch virus (GRBV, Grablovirus, Geminiviridae) in greenhouse settings; however, their role as a vector of GRBV in vineyards is unknown. Following controlled exposures of aviruliferous S. festinus for two weeks on infected, asymptomatic vines in a California vineyard in June and a 48 h gut clearing on alfalfa, a nonhost of GRBV, approximately half of the released insects tested positive for GRBV (45%, 46 of 102), including in the salivary glands of dissected individuals (11%, 3 of 27), indicating acquisition. Following controlled exposures of viruliferous S. festinus for two to six weeks on GRBV-negative vines in vineyards in California and New York in June, transmission of GRBV was detected when two S. festinus were restricted to a single leaf (3%, 2 of 62 in California; 10%, 5 of 50 in New York) but not with cohorts of 10-20 specimens on entire or half shoots. This work was consistent with greenhouse assays in which transmission was most successful with S. festinus exposed to a single leaf (42%, 5 of 12), but rarely occurred on half shoots (8%, 1 of 13), and never on entire shoots (0%, 0 of 18), documenting that the transmission of GRBV is facilitated through the feeding of fewer S. festinus on a restricted area of grapevine tissue. This work demonstrates S. festinus is a GRBV vector of epidemiological importance in vineyards.

Keywords: Geminiviridae; Grablovirus; Spissistilus festinus; Vitis vinifera; acquisition; transmission.

Publication types

Research Support, U.S. Gov't, Non-P.H.S.
Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

Animals
Farms
Geminiviridae* / genetics
Hemiptera*
Humans
Medicago sativa
Plant Diseases
Vitis*

Grants and funding

This work was supported in part by the California Department of Food and Agriculture’s Pierce’s Disease and Glassy-Winged Sharpshooter Program (19-0262-000-SA, 20-0264-000-SA, 21-0267-000-SA, 22-0552-000-SA), USDA NIFA federal capacity funds, and Cornell AgriTech venture funds.