Responses of white yam ( <i>Dioscorea rotundata</i> ) cultivars to inoculation with three viruses

Abstract

The responses of 24 white yam ( Dioscorea rotundata ) cultivars to mechanical and vector transmission with each of three viruses infecting yams were assessed through enzyme‐linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) and symptom development. The viruses were Dioscorea alata virus (DAV), genus Potyvirus ; Dioscorea alata bacilliform virus (DaBV), genus Badnavirus ; and Cucumber mosaic virus (CMV), genus Cucumovirus . Only TDr 95‐128, a landrace cultivar from Nigeria, developed symptoms of infection with CMV and DaBV following mechanical and vector transmission, respectively. PAS‐ELISA showed that nine genotypes remained uninfected by DAV and 11 were uninfected by CMV or DaBV. Genotypes TDr 747 and TDr 1640 both showed resistance to all three viruses.