Yellowing disease of 'family 41' sugar beet

In a preliminary note, Clinch, Loughnane and McKay describe a yellowing disease in a breeder's 'pure line' of sugar beet (family 41), which is transmissible through the seed and also by the aphis, Myzus persicœ. Recently, Clinch and Loughnane have published a paper2 on this disease with the title "Seed Transmission of Virus Yellows of Sugar Beet and the Existence of Strains of this Virus in Eire". This title is, in our opinion, misleading, for it suggests that sugar beet yellows virus is transmitted by seed. There is, on the contrary, much evidence that it is not, and though the yellowing of family 41 may be transmitted through the seed, there is nothing to show that the condition is caused by beet yellows virus.