Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

Natural infectivity of Dalbulus maidis populations and incidence of corn stunt and virus diseases in maize over time

  • Original Article
  • Published:
Tropical Plant Pathology Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

The aim of this study was to evaluate the natural infectivity of Dalbulus maidis with spiroplasma (corn stunt spiroplasma—CSS—Spiroplasma kunkelii), phytoplasma (maize bushy stunt phytoplasma—MBSP), and virus (maize rayado fino virus—MRFV) through transmission tests using two densities of leafhoppers (one and five adult D. maidis) collected fortnightly from maize fields during two agricultural years. During 35 months D. maidis adults were collected in maize at intervals of 15 days with entomological net (Sete Lagoas/MG, Brazil). The leafhoppers were confined in number of one or five individuals by maize plant (V2 stage) for an inoculation access period (IAP) of five days. At flowering stage, plant disease symptoms were evaluated. The total percentage of plants showing symptoms of infection by at least one of the pathogens (spiroplasma, phytoplasma or MRFV) was significantly higher for plants that were exposed to five leafhoppers (24.2%) compared to those exposed to one leafhopper (12.3%). The percent of diseased plants was similar in Autumn (20.0%), Winter (18.8%), Springer (16.1%) and Summer (18.3%). However, spiroplasma infection was predominant in Summer. Our results demonstrated that a five-fold increase in the number of D. maidis on maize plants led to a two-fold increase in the number of symptomatic plants. Under natural conditions, leafhoppers have the ability to visit multiple plants during the post-emergence phase, thereby transmitting pathogens to multiple plants that become source plants for corn stunt and virus diseases. Therefore, population reduction of D. maidis can be a critical strategy for managing these diseases in maize crops.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Log in via an institution

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Fig. 1

Similar content being viewed by others

Data availability

Original data and data sets analyzed in this study are available by request from the corresponding author.

References

  • Alivizatos AS, Markham PG (1986) Acquisition and transmission of corn stunt spiroplasma by its leafhopper vector Dalbulus maidis. Annals of Applied Biology 108:535–544

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Barros TSL, Davis RE, Resende RO, Dally EL (2001) Design of a polymerase chain reaction for specific detection of corn stunt spiroplasma. Plant Disease 85:475–480

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Bascopé-Quintanilla JB (1977) Agente causal de la llamada “raza mesa central” del achaparramiento del maiz. Dissertation. Chapingo Mexico, Escuela Nacional de Agricultura Colégio de Postgraduados

  • Bedendo IP, Davis RE, Dally EL (1997) Molecular evidence for the presence of maize bushy stunt phytoplasma in corn in Brazil. Plant Disease 81:957

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Broadbent L (1957) Insecticidal control of the spread of plant viruses. Annual Review of Entomololgy 2:339–354

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Conover WJ (1980) Practical nonparametric statistics, 2nd edn. John Wiley, New York

    Google Scholar 

  • Costa AS, Kitajima EW, Arruda SC (1971) Moléstias de vírus e de micoplasma no milho em São Paulo. Revista da Sociedade Brasileira de Fitopatologia 4:39–41

    Google Scholar 

  • Gámez R (1973) Transmission of rayado fino virus of maize (Zea mays) by Dalbulus maidis. Annals of Applied Biology 7:285–292

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Goodwin PH, Mahuku GS, Hongwei L, Xue BG (1999) Monitoring phytoplasma in populations of aster leafhoppers from lettuce fields using the polymerase chain reaction. Crop Protection 18:91–99

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Gordon DT, Knoke JK, Scott GE (1981) Virus and viruslike diseases of maize in the United States. Ohio Agricultural Research and Development Center, Wooster

  • Huskra AJ, Gladstone SM, Obando R (1996) Epidemic roller coaster: maize stunt in Nicaragua. American Entomologist 42:248–252

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Jeger MJ (2020) The epidemiology of plant virus disease: Towards a new synthesis. Plants 9:1768. https://doi.org/10.3390/plants9121768www.mdpi

    Article  CAS  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  • Lee I, Hamond RW, Davis RE, Gundersen DE (1993) Universal amplification and analysis of pathogen 16S rDNA for classification and identification of mycoplasmalike organisms. Molecular Plant Pathology 83:834–842

    CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Legrand AI, Power AG (1994) Inoculation and acquisition of maize bushy stunt mycoplasma by its leafhopper vector Dalbulus maidis. Annals of Applied Biology 125:115–122

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Markham PG, Alivizatos AS (1983) The transmission of corn stunt spiroplasma by natural and experimental vectors In: International Maize Virus Disease Colloquium and Workshop. The Ohio State University, Wooster

  • Nemenyi PB (1963) Distribution-free multiple comparisons. PhD thesis, Princeton University, Princeton

  • Mendes LOT (1938) Observações sobre alguns insetos coletados sobre algodoeiro durante os anos de 1936 e 1937. Boletim Técnico do Instituto Agronômico 45:1–15

    Google Scholar 

  • Neves TN, Foresti J, Silva PR, Alves E, Rocha R, Oliveira C, Picanço MC, Pereira EJ (2021) Insecticide seed treatment against corn leafhopper: helping protect grain yield in critical plant growth stages. Pest Management Science 78:1482–1491

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Oliveira CM, Frizzas MR (2022) Eight Decades of Dalbulus maidis (DeLong & Wolcott) (Hemiptera Cicadellidae) in Brazil: what we know and what we need to know. Neotropical Entomology 51:1–17

  • Oliveira CM, Lopes JRS, Querino RB (2017) Técnicas de criação da cigarrinha-do-milho para estudos de transmissão e de controle biológico. In: Oliveira CM, Sabato EO (Eds) Doenças em milho: insetos-vetores molicutes e vírus. Embrapa, Brasília, Brazil. pp. 155–198

  • Oliveira E, Oliveira AC (2003) Incidência de enfezamento e de maize rayado fino virus em milho em diferentes épocas de plantio e relação entre a expressão de sintomas de enfezamentos e produção. Summa Phytopathologica 29:221–224

    Google Scholar 

  • Oliveira CM, Oliveira E, Canuto M, Cruz I (2007) Controle químico da cigarrinha-do-milho e incidência dos enfezamentos causados por molicutes. Pesquisa Agropecuária Brasileira 42:297–303

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Oliveira CM, Oliveira E, Canuto M, Cruz I (2008) Eficiência de inseticidas em tratamento de sementes de milho no controle da cigarrinha Dalbulus maidis (Hemiptera: Cicadellidae) em viveiro telado. Ciência Rural 38:231–235

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Oliveira CM, Sabato EO (2017) Doenças em milho: insetos-vetores molicutes e vírus. Embrapa, Brasília/DF, Brazil

  • Oliveira E, Landau EC, Sousa SM (2015) Simultaneous transmission of phytoplasma and spiroplasma by Dalbulus maidis leafhopper and symptoms of infected maize. Phytopathogenic Mollicutes 5:99–100

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Oliveira E, Waquil JM, Fernandes FT, Paiva E, Resende RO, Kitajima WE (1998) Enfezamento pálido e enfezamento vermelho na cultura do milho no Brasil Central. Fitopatologia Brasileira 23:45–47

    Google Scholar 

  • Pohlert T (2014) The Pairwise Multiple Comparison of Mean Ranks Package (PMCMR) R Package. https://CRAN.R-project.org/package=PMCMR. Accessed 12 Apr 2021

  • R Core Team (2022) R: A language and environment for statistical computing.R Foundation for Statistical Computing, Vienna, Austria. URL https://www.R-project.org/. Available at: https://wwwr-project.org/. Accessed on 12 Dec 2022

  • Sabato EO, Landau EC, Barros BA, Oliveira CM (2020) Differential transmission of phytoplasma and spiroplasma to maize caused by variation in the environmental temperature in Brazil. European Journal of Plant Pathology 157:163–171

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Sabato EO (2017a) Enfezamentos do milho. In: Oliveira CM, Sabato EO (Eds) Doenças em milho: insetos-vetores molicutes e vírus. Embrapa, Brasília, Brazil. pp. 11–24

  • Sabato EO (2017b) Enfezamentos e viroses no milho. In: Seminário Nacional de Milho Safrinha, 14. Associação Brasileira de Milho e Sorgo, Sete Lagoas/MG, Brazil. pp. 196–219

  • Saghai-Maroof MA, Soliman KM, Jorgensen RA, Allard R (1984) Ribosomal DNA spacer-length polymorphisms in barley: mendelian inheritance, chromosomal location, and population dynamics. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 81:8014–8018

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Sousa SM, Barros BA (2017) Detecção molecular de molicutes em milho In: Oliveira CM, Sabato EO (Eds) Doenças em milho: insetos-vetores molicutes e vírus Embrapa, Brasília, Brazil. pp. 25–34

  • Tsai JH (1988) Bionomics of Dalbulus maidis (DeLong & Wolcott): a vector of mollicutes and virus (Homoptera: Cicadellidae). In: Maramorosch K, Raychaudhuri SP (eds) Mycoplasma diseases of crops: basic and applied aspects. Springer-Verlag, New York, pp 209–221

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  • Vilanova ES, Ramos A, Oliveira MCS, Esteves MB, Gonçalves MC, Lopes JR (2022) First report of a mastrevirus (Geminiviridae) transmitted by the corn leafhopper. Plant Disease 106:1330–1333

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Waquil JM, Viana PA, Cruz I, Santos JP (1999) Aspectos da biologia da cigarrinha-do-milho, Dalbulus maidis (DeLong & Wolcott) (Hemiptera: Cicadellidae). Anais da Sociedade Entomológica do Brasil 2:413–420

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Whitcomb RF, Chen TA, Williamson DL, Liao C, Tully JG, Bové JM, Mouch ESC, Rose DL, Coan ME, Clark TB (1986) Spiroplasma kukelii sp nov characterization of the etiological agent of corn stunt disease. International Journal of Systematic Bacteriology 36:170–178

    Article  Google Scholar 

Download references

Acknowledgements

The authors thank Marcio Geraldo Martinelli for his support in the field collection and in the screenhouse experiments.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Embrapa Cerrados, Rodovia BR 020, Km 18, Caixa Postal 08223, CEP 73310-970, Planaltina, DF, Brazil

    Charles Martins de Oliveira

  2. Embrapa Milho e Sorgo, Rodovia MG 424 Km 45, Zona Rural, Caixa Postal 151, CEP 35701-970, Sete Lagoas, MG, Brazil

    Elizabeth de Oliveira Sabato & Beatriz Almeida Barros

Authors
  1. Charles Martins de Oliveira
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Elizabeth de Oliveira Sabato
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  3. Beatriz Almeida Barros
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Contributions

All authors contributed to the conception, design and writing of this manuscript. Field, screenhouse and laboratory work was conducted by EOS and BAB. Data analysis were performed by CMO. The first draft of this manuscript was written by EOS and all authors commented on previous versions of the manuscript. All authors read and approved the final manuscript.

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Charles Martins de Oliveira.

Ethics declarations

Conflict of interest

The authors declare no competing interests.

Additional information

Publisher's note

Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.

Rights and permissions

Springer Nature or its licensor (e.g. a society or other partner) holds exclusive rights to this article under a publishing agreement with the author(s) or other rightsholder(s); author self-archiving of the accepted manuscript version of this article is solely governed by the terms of such publishing agreement and applicable law.

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Oliveira, C.M., de Oliveira Sabato, E. & Barros, B.A. Natural infectivity of Dalbulus maidis populations and incidence of corn stunt and virus diseases in maize over time. Trop. plant pathol. 48, 575–580 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s40858-023-00599-0

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s40858-023-00599-0

Keywords

Search

Navigation