A group led by Michelle Heck, research molecular biologist at the USDA Agricultural Research Service (USDA-ARS) and Boyce Thompson Institute, used recently developed small RNA sequencing techniques to better understand how plant viruses interact with aphids. And in an unanticipated discovery, Heck and her team uncovered what may be the first example of a plant virus and an insect virus cooperating to increase the likelihood that both viruses will spread in their plant and aphid hosts.

The work, “Plant Viruses Transmitted in Two Different Modes Produce Differing Effects on Small RNA-Mediated Processes in Their Aphid Vector,” was published in March in Phytobiomes.

Heck, also an adjunct assistant professor in the School of Integrative Plant Science in the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences, and her team focused on the green peach aphid (Myzus persicae), which transmits more than 100 plant viruses and feeds on a variety of crops, including peaches, tomatoes, potatoes, cabbage and corn.