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TECHNICAL SESSION: Virology

A biotechnology-based solution for blocking polerovirus transmission by aphids

Tuesday, August 5, 2025
3:45 PM - 4:00 PM HST
Location: Room 312
Abstract Text: Potato leafroll virus (PLRV) is an aphid-borne polerovirus that can cause economic damage to potato production. PLRV transmission by Myzus persicae, the green peach aphid, is circulative, non-propagative, and controlled by virus-vector-plant protein interactions. PLRV spread is managed with neonicotinoid insecticides. However, increasing regulatory constraints on neonicotinoids necessitate the development of alternative vector management tactics. We solved the 3-D structure of the N-terminal domain of the polerovirus readthrough protein, referred to as the NRTD, for PLRV and the related Turnip yellows virus. In lab-based transmission assays with manual manipulation of individual aphids, we showed that transgenic potato plants expressing the NRTD reduce PLRV acquisition and transmission. To test whether NRTD transgenic plant technology can be scaled to field application, we conducted two years of large-scale greenhouse experiments using mass release of thousands of PLRV-viruliferous aphids with NRTD plants as border rows or intercropped with non-transgenic plants. The NRTD plants reduce aphid movement, PLRV transmission, PLRV titer in aphids, and alter the titer of insect-infecting viruses in aphids. Select mutations in the NRTD protein structurally predicted to bind aphid receptors are insecticidal to Myzus persicae and Aphis gossypii, the cotton aphid when orally delivered via artificial diets. Our work supports the hypothesis that NRTD technology is a blueprint for the biological control of poleroviruses and their aphid vectors.