George G Kennedy, William Sharpee, Alana L Jacobson, Mary Wambugu, Benard Mware, Linda Hanley-Bowdoin.

Sci Rep.; 2023 Jun 21; 13(1):10059. doi: 10.1038/s41598-023-37278-8.

Figure: White fly and cassava mosaic begomovirus disease

Abstract

Cassava mosaic disease is caused by a complex of whitefly-transmitted begomoviruses, which often occur in co-infections. These viruses have bipartite genomes consisting of DNA-A and DNA-B that are encapsidated into separate virions. Individual viruses exist in plants and whitefly vectors as populations comprising both genome segments, which can occur at different frequencies. Both segments are required for infection, and must be transmitted for virus spread to occur. Cassava plants infected with African cassava mosaic virus (ACMV) and/or East African cassava mosaic Cameroon virus (EACMCV), in which the ratios of DNA-A:DNA-B titers differed between plants, were used to examine how titers of the segments in a plant relate to their respective probabilities of acquisition by whiteflies and to the titers of each segment acquired and subsequently transmitted by whiteflies. The probabilities of acquiring each segment of ACMV did not reflect their relative titers in the source plant but they did for EACMCV. However, for both viruses, DNA-A:DNA-B ratios acquired by whiteflies differed from those in the source plant and the ratios transmitted by the whitefly did not differ from one - the ratio at which the highest probability of transmitting both segments is expected.

See https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/37344614/

Figure 5

DNA-A:DNA-B log₁₀ copy number ratios in transmitting whiteflies and corresponding sucrose sachets or leaf discs  for ACMV and EACMCV. P, t, and df values for paired t-tests of hypothesis that DNA-A:DNA-B ratios transmitted to sucrose or leaf discs are not different from the ratios in the transmitting whitefly.