The sweetpotato whitefly Bemisia tabaci (Hemiptera: Aleyrodidae) is a disastrous pest in horticultural plants worldwide. B. tabaci is a species complex including at least 24 biotypes in the world. In Korea, B-biotype has been invaded in 1998, Q-biotype in 2005 and widely spread into the country. B. tabaci is also a vector of more than 100 plant viruses, especially begomoviruses. Since 2008, Tomato yellow leaf curl virus (TYLCV) has been invaded into Korea and severely damaged tomato cultivar in all over of the country. B. tabaci is the only vector insect of TYLCV. Here we demonstrated whether TYLCV influence on the vector physiology during virus transmission. Pesticide susceptibility of whiteflies on TYLCV acquisition was determined in B. tabaci using the two-layered parafilm feeding chamber which containing 20% sugar solution including different doses of imidacloprid. Our result showed that TYLCV-viruliferous whiteflies were more susceptible to imidacloprid ingestion than non-viruliferous whiteflies. This study suggests that plant virus can manipulate the physiological conditions of vector insects.

• Bong-Gi Choi(Department of Applied Bioscience, Kyung-pook National University)
• Jae-Kyoung Shim(Department of Applied Bioscience, Kyung-pook National University)
• Kyeong-Yeoll Lee(Department of Applied Bioscience, Kyung-pook National University, Institute of Plant Medicine, Kyungpook National University)