Effects of Bell Pepper Endornavirus (BPEV) on the Green Peach Aphid Host Selection and Population Dynamics

Bell pepper endornavirus (BPEV) [genus: Endornavirus, family: Endornaviridae] is a double stranded RNA virus which infects economically important crops such as peppers (Capsicum anuum) and are seed transmitted.  BPEV do not cause apparent symptoms and lack cell-to-cell movement but are found at constant concentrations in every tissue and at every developmental stage.  It appears that during the development of bell pepper, plant breeders unaware of the existence of endornaviruses in the germplasm, selected endornavirus-infected genotypes.  This could be an indication that the presence of endornaviruses in these crops is beneficial.  Among possible beneficial effects that endornaviruses may provide to the host could include tolerance or resistance to biotic and abiotic agents and therefore may have evolved a symbiotic relationship with their hosts to tolerate stresses.  With this in mind, we set out to determine host suitability and population dynamics of green peach aphid, Myzus persicae (Sulzer), on endornavirus infected and virus free pepper test plants.