Reinvestigation of the Role of a Lactobacillus Associated with Leafhopper Vectors of Pierce's Disease of Grapevines

Abstract

PURCELL, A. H., B. A. LATORRE-GUZMAN, C. I. KADO, A. C. GOHEEN, and T. A. SHALLA. 1977. Reinvestigation ofthe role of a Lactobacillus associated with leafhopper vectors of Pierce's disease of grapevines. Phytopathology 67: 298-301. Transmission of Pierce's disease to healthy grapevines circellata, when surface-sterilized, triturated, and plated on occurred only after its leafhopper vectors were first allowed medium 523 agar, produced isolates of this bacterium about to feed on diseased vines. Noninfective adult males and equally. The bacterium was not recovered from D. minerva nymphs of Hordnia circellata or Draeculacephala minerva that had fed on grapevines with Pierce's disease and was that were injected with or given access feeding to several recovered only infrequently from D. minerva that had fed on cultures of a Lactobacillus sp. isolated from H. circellata that broth cultures of the bacteria. These results contradict had transmitted the Pierce's disease agent, did not transmit previous reports that this bacterium is the causal agent of the disease to test plants. Infective and noninfective H. Pierce's disease.