Methodology for inoculating sweetpotato virus disease: Discovery of tip dieback, and plant recovery and reversion in different clones

Evaluating sweetpotato (Ipomoea batatas) genotypes for resistance to sweetpotato virus disease (SPVD) has been slow and inefficient. Ipomoea setosa plants, normally used as the source of scions for graft-infecting sweetpotatoes with viral diseases, are often severely stunted and their mortality is 10 to 30% when infected with SPVD, making them unsuitable as scions. Tanzania, a landrace of I. batatas widely grown in East Africa, was found to be a superior host for maintaining and increasing SPVD inoculum (scions) for mass grafting. Modifications to a cleft-grafting technique also increased survival of grafted SPVD-affected scions from 5 to 100%. These modifications, coupled with an efficient SPVD scoring technique, allowed rapid screening of large sweetpotato populations for SPVD resistance. Plant recovery from SPVD is reported here as a component of SPVD resistance. Differences in recovery from SPVD were detected among progenies, indicating its genetic basis. Plant tip dieback, a hypersensitivity response, was observed only in families with cv. Wagabolige as a parent. These findings may open up new opportunities for improved understanding and control of this devastating disease.