Teamwork is essential when you are dealing with something like this, Jensen said. Some simple form of positive identification of the virus was needed. Jensen and IANR Serologist Ellen Ball developed an antiserum to the HPV protein. The antiserum could be shipped to researchers anywhere to use as a test for virus identification. Experimental work began with identifying how the virus was transmitted.
Viruses can t travel on their own.
They need an organism, called a vector, to carry them from host to host. In 1993, observers noticed that corn bordering wheat stubble fields was hit hardest, indicating HPV may have moved in from wheat. The vector was unknown. Knowing how the disease is transmitted allows researchers to infect plants and conduct controlled disease studies, important tools in virus purification and the search for disease-resistant plants. In 1994 HPV struck sweet corn seed production fields in western Idaho, which grow almost 80 percent of the world s supply.