H. Sayama et al., FIELD TESTING OF A SATELLITE-CONTAINING ATTENUATED STRAIN OF CUCUMBERMOSAIC-VIRUS FOR TOMATO PROTECTION IN JAPAN, Phytopathology, 83(4), 1993, pp. 405-410
A potentially useful, attenuated cucumber mosaic virus (CMV), CMV-KO2,
was isolated from a tomato field in Japan. The virus had an associate
d nonnecrogenic satellite RNA (SatRNA) containing 368 nucleotides with
microsequence heterogeneity and a unique sequence in positions 79-87
compared to previously reported SatRNAs. Experimental infections in to
mato plants showed that the concentration of CMV-KO2 was maintained st
ably at low levels, and it was not transmitted from tomato to tomato b
y Myzus persicae. A host-range study of 32 cultivars of 20 species fro
m eight families showed that CMV-KO2, in general, caused either no sym
ptoms or mild symptoms on those plants. No synergistic effect caused b
y mixed infections of CMV-KO2 and tobacco mosaic virus or potato virus
Y was observed in tomato plants. Field tests during 1989 and 1990 rev
ealed that tomato plants treated with CMV-KO2 had a 20-200% higher yie
ld (20-40 t/ha) compared to nontreated plants in CMV-infested fields.
Collectively, the results indicate that CMV-KO2 is useful and safe to
use.