Abstract
English grain aphids ( Macrosiphum granarium Kirby) confined in a feeding chamber topped with an animal membrane (Silverlight) readily penetrated the membrane to feed on liquid plant extracts containing added sucrose. When groups of nonviruliferous aphids were allowed to feed through the membrane for 16–18 hours at 15°C on extracts from oats infected by barley yellow dwarf virus and then were transferred to oat test plants (10 aphids per plant) for a 3-day inoculation test feeding period, they readily transmitted the virus when it was the vector-specific strain normally transmitted efficiently by this aphid from plants. Some transmission occurred in every one of more than 70 tests made on extracts of frozen stems of infected oats but not in 2 tests on crude extracts made from viruliferous aphids. Percentages of infected plants ranged from 10 to 94 and were usually between 40 and 80 in individual experiments. The dilution end point of the virus in clarified extracts was between 1:1000 and 1:10,000 when distilled water was the diluent and when sucrose was added just before testing. Starving the aphids for several hours before acquisition feeding increased transmission.
Published Version
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