Transmission 2: Mechanical, Seed, Pollen and Epidemiology

Roger Hull, in Matthews' Plant Virology (Fourth Edition), 2002

D. By dodder
Dodder (Cuscuta spp.) (Convolvulaceae) is a parasitic vine on higher
plants. There are many different species with different host ranges,
some of which are extensive. Bennett (1940b) showed that dodder
would transmit viruses from plant to plant. The parasite
forms haustoria, which connect with the vascular tissues of the host.
Viruses are probably transmitted via the plasmodesmata which
transiently connect the parasite's hyphal tips with host-cell cytoplasm.
Transmission by dodder is in some respects similar to grafting.
However, graft compatibility is limited to quite closely related plants–
usually within a genus. Dodder, on the other hand, can be used to
transmit a virus between distantly related plants (e.g.Desjardins et al.,
1969). The virus being transmitted experimentally may not multiply in
the dodder, which then appears to act as a passive pipeline
connecting two plants. Transmission of TMV was substantially
increased by conditions (such as pruning the dodder and shading the
healthy plant) that might be expected to lead to a flow of food
materials through the dodder from the diseased to the healthy plant
(Cochran, 1946). Bennett (1940b)was able to separate CMV from
TMV because it persisted in the dodder when the parasite was grown
on hosts immune to both viruses, whereas the TMV was lost.
Dodder used in transmission studies may sometimes harbor an
unsuspected virus. Thus,Bennett (1944) found that
symptomless Cuscuta californica was frequently infected with a virus
he called Dodder latent mosaic virus, which caused serious disease in
several unrelated plant species.
One of the main experimental uses of dodder transmission has been
to transfer viruses from hosts where they are difficult to study to
usefulexperimental plants. Dodder is probably an insignificant factor in
the transmission of economically important viruses in the field, and
has rarely been used in experimental work in recent times.
GLRaV-7 can be transmitted from one host to another by C.
reflexa and C. europea in which it appeared to replicate; it also
replicates in C. campestris but could not be transmitted to another
host in this dodder (Mikona and Jelkmann, 2010). Dodder used in
transmission studies may sometimes harbor an unsuspected virus.
Thus,Bennett (1944) found that symptomless C. californicais
frequently infected with a virus he called dodder latent mosaic virus
that caused serious disease in several unrelated plant species.
One of the main experimental uses of dodder transmission has been
to transfer viruses from hosts where they are difficult to study to useful
experimental plants. Dodder is probably an insignificant factor in the
transmission of economically important viruses in the field, and has
rarely been used in experimental work in recent times.
CMV, ToMV, PVY, and TYLCV translocate from infected hosts to the
broomrape, and CMV and possibly the other viruses replicate in
the parasitic plant Phelipanche aegyptiaca (Gal-On et al., 2009). It is
not known if the viruses can be transmitted from broomrape to other
hosts that it parasitizes. It is of interest to note that there is horizontal
gene transfer(HGT) between plants by the parasitic plant Striga
hermonthica (Yoshida et al., 2010). Although there are no records
of virus transmission by this important parasite in tropical countries,
the HGT shows that it is a potential vector