Plant Virus Jumps 1.6-Billion-Year Species Barrier To Infect Honeybees
From: Forbes
Paul Rodgers, Contributor
The mystery of colony collapse disorder in honeybees has a remarkable new suspect – a plant virus that has made a spectacular jump across 1.6 billion years of evolution to infect insects.
The potential hive killer is tobacco ringspot virus, named for the discoloured circles it forms on infected leaves. It has at least 90 different plant hosts and is so difficult to get rid of that some farmers have stopped raising susceptible crops.
Leave a Comment February 3, 2014
