Aspects of resistance to sweet potato virus disease in sweet potato

Abstract

Summary In field trials during the first and the second rainy season of 1996 in Uganda, whiteflies were similarly abundant and aphids were absent on three clones of sweet potato (NIS‐93–63, cv. Tanzania and cv. New Kawogo) although the three clones differed considerably in their resistance to sweet potato virus disease (SPVD), a complex disease resulting from infection by both the aphid‐borne sweet potato feathery mottle virus (SPFMV) and the whitefly‐borne sweet potato chlorotic stunt virus (SPCSV). This suggests that vector resistance does not determine the relative SPVD resistance of these genotypes. SPFMV alone had only a low virus titre in sweet potato cvs Tanzania and New Kawogo, became increasingly difficult to detect in plants of these cultivars and was seldom acquired by aphids. However, this resistance to SPFMV was not apparent in plants which were also infected with SPCSV. Plants then had a high SPFMV titre, appeared unable to eliminate SPFMV and provided good sources for aphids to acquire it.