• Journal of Korean Society of Forest Science
• /
• v.83 no.1
• /
• pp.1-5
• /
• 1994

Sixteen kinds of piercing-sucking mouth type insects were observed at witches'-broom diseased paulownia (Paulownia tomentosa) trees. Among ten insect species tested, a leafhopper, Empoasca sp., transmitted paulownia witches'-broom mycoplasma-like organism(PWB-MLO) to periwinkle(Catharanthus roseus) plant. Adults of this leafhopper were collected from PWB-diseased paulownia trees. The leafhpoppers were allowed to feed on the PWB-infected paulownia trees for three weeks to acquire PWB-MLO. These insects were then transferred to healthy seedlings of paulownia and periwinkle plants for inoculation-feeding. About 30-40days after the inoculation, "little-leaf" symptoms developed on periwinkle plants, but no symptoms developed on paulownia seedlings. MLO infection in the diseased periwinkle tissue was diagnosed by fluorescence microscopy. MLOs were observed in the sieve tubes by electron microscopy, proving the insect transmission of PWB-MLO.