Purification, properties and transmission of parsnip yellow fleck, a semi‐persistent, aphid‐borne virus

Abstract

SUMMARY Parsnip yellow fleck virus (PYFV) is the commonest cause of virus‐like symptoms in parsnip plants in Britain: it is sap‐transmissible but systemically infects few species outside the Umbelliferae. It has isometric particles 29–31 mμ in diameter, a sedimentation coefficient of 167s, and loses infectivity in sap after dilution to 10 ‐3 ‐10 ‐4 , heating for 10 min at 57·5–65°C, or storage at room temperature for 4–7 days. Two isolates, from parsnip and Anthriscus sylvestris respectively, are only distantly serologically related. The aphid Cavariella aegopodii transmits PYFV in a semi‐persistent manner from A. sylvestris but not from parsnip. Transmission by aphids apparently depends on the presence in A. sylvestris or other source plants of a second virus, anthriscus yellows (AYV), which is persistent in the vector and not manually transmissible. PYFV was therefore not transmitted by aphids from manually inoculated plants or from parsnip or other plants immune to AYV. In controlled experiments, C. aegopodii transmitted PYFV (both A. sylvestris and parsnip isolates) from chervil plants inoculated separately with PYFV and AYV, but not from plants inoculated only with PYFV.