Judith K Brown
Work Summary
Unravel the phylodynamics and transmission-specific determinants of emerging plant virus/fastidious bacteria-insect vector complexes, and translate new knowledge to abate pathogen spread in food systems.
Unravel the phylodynamics and transmission-specific determinants of emerging plant virus/fastidious bacteria-insect vector complexes, and translate new knowledge to abate pathogen spread in food systems.
PMID: 19774336;PMCID: PMC2853933;
Abstract:
Visualization of dissected accessory salivary glands (ASGs) of the whitefly Bemisia tabaci (Gennadius) (Hemiptera: Aleyrodidae) by light microscopy (LM) revealed three distinctive toluidine blue O stain profiles. Considered morphotypes, the three profiles are hypothesized to represent stages of a salivation cycle, wherein contents are cyclically depleted and subsequently regenerated as needed for feeding. When whiteflies were repeatedly interrupted during their initial feeding behaviors, and then ASGs were dissected, a fourth stain profile was revealed. These observations are therefore relevant to the different mechanisms involved in whitefly-mediated virus transmission to plants. Stain techniques involved in transmission electron microscopy of extirpated and nonextirpated ASGs reveal entirely different profiles that cannot yet be correlated to LM findings. The midgut of B. tabaci is capable of transposing its location from the abdomen to the thorax and can come into direct contact with the ASGs. This finding opens new lines of thought in the potential for interaction between the two, such as purging of excess water and waste, and virus transmission. © 2011 Entomological Society of America.
Leke, W.N., Mignouna, D.B., Brown, J.K., Fondong, V.N. 2016. First report of Soybean chlorotic blotch virus and West African Asystasia virus 1 infecting cassava and a wild cassava relative in Cameroon and Togo. New Disease Reports 33:24. http://dx.doi.org/10.5197/j.2044-0588.2016.033.024