Insects, viruses, and plants

A colony of MEAM1 whiteflies of the B. tabaci complex (mtCOI, GenBank accession number: {"type":"entrez-nucleotide","attrs":{"text":"KM821540","term_id":"747038927","term_text":"KM821540"}}KM821540), originally collected from the field, was maintained on cotton (Gossypium hirsutum cv. Zhe-Mian 1793). Whiteflies were kept in insect-proof cages in artificial climate chambers at 26 ± 2°C under a 14-h photoperiod, 60 ± 10% relative humidity. Cotton plants were grown to 6–7 true leaf stage and then used for whitefly rearing. To obtain virus-infected plants, infectious clones of TYLCV isolate SH2 (GenBank accession number: {"type":"entrez-nucleotide","attrs":{"text":"AM282874","term_id":"109450882","term_text":"AM282874"}}AM282874) or PaLCuCNV isolate HeNZM1 (GenBank accession number: {"type":"entrez-nucleotide","attrs":{"text":"FN256260","term_id":"224993908","term_text":"FN256260"}}FN256260) were inoculated into tomato (Solanum lycopersicum Mill. cv. Hezuo903) or Nicotiana benthamiana seedlings. All plants were grown in insect-proof greenhouses under natural lighting supplemented with artificial lighting for 14 h a day and controlled temperature at 25 ± 3°C. The inoculated plants that showed typical symptoms of virus infection were used at 25–30 days postinoculation.