| Abstract: |
To study the host range of Rose rosette virus (RRV), we employed crude sap inoculum
extracted from RRV-infected roses and the RRV infectious clone. We inoculated plants from the
families Solanaceae, Cucurbitaceae, Leguminosae, Malvaceae, Amaranthaceae, and Brassicaceae. Reverse
transcription-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) was used to detect RRV in the inoculated plants
throughout their growth stages. Interestingly, RRV was detected in the newly developed leaves
of tomato, pepper, tobacco, cucumber, squash, zucchini, pumpkin, pea, peanut, soybean, spinach,
okra, and Chenopodium spp. The speed of upward advancement of RRV within infected plants was
variable between plants as it took two to three weeks for some plant species and up to five weeks in
other plant species to emerge in the newest leaves. No severe symptoms were detected on most of
the inoculated plants. Chenopodium spp., spinach, cucumber and Nicotiana rustica exhibited either
chlorotic or necrotic lesions with variable shapes and patterns on the systemically infected leaves.
Double membrane-bound particles of 80–120 nm in diameter were detected by transmission electron
microscopy in the infected tissues of cucumber, pepper, and N. benthamiana plants. This finding infers
the validity of mechanical inoculation for RRV on a wide range of plants that would serve as potential
natural reservoirs.
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