Virologica Sinica 2014;(3):148-154

doi:10.1007/s12250-014-3430-1

Agroinfection of sweet potato by vacuum inifltration of an infectious sweepovirus

Huiping BI ; Peng ZHANG

Keywords

sweepovirus; agroinfection; vacuum inifltration; sweet potato

Country

China

Language

Chinese

Abstract

Sweepovirus is an important monopartite begomovirus that infects plants of the genus Ipomoea worldwide. Development of artiifcial infection methods for sweepovirus using agroinoculation is a highly efficient means of studying infectivity in sweet potato. Unlike other begomoviruses, it has proven difficult to infect sweet potato plants with sweepoviruses using infectious clones. A novel sweepovirus, called Sweet potato leaf curl virus-Jiangsu (SPLCV-JS), was recently identiifed in China. In addition, the infectivity of the SPLCV-JS clone has been demonstrated in Nicotiana benthamiana. Here we describe the agroinfection of the sweet potato cultivar Xushu 22 with the SPLCV-JS infectious clone using vacuum inifltration. Yellowing symptoms were observed in newly emerged leaves. Molecular analysis confirmed successful inoculation by the detection of viral DNA. A synergistic effect of SPLCV-JS and the heterologous betasatellite DNA-βof Tomato yellow leaf curl China virus isolate Y10 (TYLCCNV-Y10) on enhanced symptom severity and viral DNA accumulation was conifrmed. The development of a routine agroinoculation system in sweet potato with SPLCV-JS using vacuum inifltration should facilitate the molecular study of sweepovirus in this host and permit the evaluation of virus resistance of sweet potato plants in breeding programs.