ARS | Publication request: Efficient Regeneration and Selection of Virus-free Sweetpotato Plants from Sweet Potato Leaf Curl Virus Infected Materials and Their Effects on Yields in Field Trials

Submitted to: Meeting Abstract
Publication Type: Abstract Only
Publication Acceptance Date: December 11, 2007
Publication Date: January 19, 2008
Citation: Ling, K., Jackson, D.M., Harrison Jr, H.F., Pesic-Vanesbroeck, Z., Hoy, M., Clark, C.A. 2008. Efficient Regeneration and Selection of Virus-free Sweetpotato Plants from Sweet Potato Leaf Curl Virus Infected Materials and Their Effects on Yields in Field Trials. Meeting Abstract. National Sweetpotato Collaborators Group Progress Report 2007. P7.

Technical Abstract: Sweet potato leaf curl virus (SPLCV) is an emerging virus disease in sweetpotato (Ipomoea batata) in the U.S. The incidence of SPLCV infection on sweetpotato increased dramatically in recent years due to the explosion of whitefly, Bemisia tabaci (Gennadius) populations. Among several sweetpotato viruses in the U.S., SPLCV is considered to be the most detrimental to production. In this study, we applied a meristem shoot-tip culture technique to generate virus free plants from 30 SPLCV infected heirloom and commercial cultivars and USVL breeding lines. Numerous plantlets were regenerated from specimens of the 30 genotypes from the USPI collection. Individual plants were considered virus-free if disease-like symptoms were not observed on grafted indicator plants (Ipomoea setosa) and Real-time PCR assays were negative. SPLCV-free and SPLCV-infected plants of five sweetpotato cultivars and one breeding line were included in two field trials at Charleston, SC, in 2007 to assess the impact of the virus. Within cultivars, virus-cleaned plants usually outperformed virus-infected plants.