Virus Vector Relationship of Yellow Mosaic Virus and Whitefly, Bemisia tabaci (Gennadius) in Soybean

Background: Whitefly is one of the most destructive sucking pest in the tropical and subtropical regions of the world and causing significant crop losses directly by sucking sap from the plants and indirectly through the transmission of viral diseases specifically caused by the genus Begomovirus. The Begomovirus species viz., Mungbean yellow mosaic India virus (MYMIV) and Mungbean yellow mosaic virus (MYMV) are causing yellow mosaic virus disease in soybean, which is transmitted by whiteflies. The disease accounts to 30-70 per cent yield loss and increases up to 80 - 100 per cent during severe incidence. Hence, there is a need for development of integrated pest management strategies against disease and whiteflies, for this the knowledge on virus-vector relationship is required. But, the studies on biological relationship of yellow mosaic virus disease and whitefly in soybean are scarce. At this juncture, considering the importance of disease in soybean, the present investigation was carried out to know the virus -vector relationship of the YMV and whitefly in soybean. Methods: The experiment on virus-vector relationship of yellow mosaic virus and whitefly in soybean was conducted at Department of Entomology, College of Agriculture, G. B. Pant University of Agriculture and Technology, Pantnagar, Uttarakhand during 2016-17. The data on number of whiteflies per plant, acquisition and inoculation access feeding period and pre and post starvation period required for effective transmission of virus was recorded. Result: A single viruliferous whitefly was able to transmit virus and ten viruliferous whiteflies per plant were required for cent per cent transmission of virus. The minimum acquisition access and inoculation access feeding periods required for virus transmission was 0.25h (15 min) each; while the 100 per cent virus transmission was recorded with acquisition and inoculation period of 12h, each. The per cent transmission was increased with the increase of acquisition and inoculation periods. The rate of transmission was positively correlated with pre-acquisition starvation period and negatively correlated with post- acquisition starvation period.