Acquisition and subsequent transmission of tobacco rattle virus isolates by Paratrichodorus and Trichodorus nematode species

Isolates of the PRN serotype of tobacco rattle virus (TRV) were transmitted with different efficiencies by the nematode vectorParatrichodorus pachydermus. Virus isolates which belonged to other serotypes were not acquired and/or transmitted by this vector, nor were PRN serotype isolates which had been obtained from naturally infected potato plants and maintained by mechanical transmission in the glasshouse for several years. PRN serotype TRV isolates from the Netherlands or from Scotland were equally well transmitted by initially virus-freeP. pachydermus populations from either country. Allowing a naturally viruliferous nematode population access for 3 weeks to uninfected or TRV-infected roots resulted in an increased proportion of the trichodorid population transmitting TRV.