citri inside beet leafhopper hosts In an experiment to understand how S. citri cells move within the beet leafhopper, researchers inoculated insects with the pathogen and then observed the locations of S. citri inside the leafhoppers using electron microscopy. They observed S. citri in the gut as well as the salivary glands of the insects which further proves that the pathogen may be transmitted by the mechanisms described in the studies above. In particular, researchers observed that S. citri were often found within gut epithelial and salivary gland cells on infected hosts within small membrane bound vesicles. This led them to believe that the S. citri pathogen may be using cell mediated endocytosis as a predominant way to enter gut and salivary cells and may be travelling directly though the cells rather than travelling in the spaces between cell membranes of individual cells through a process called diacytosis. They also observed damage to muscle cells in the gut and salivary glands of insects infected with S. citri which is evidence that S. citri causes damage to the beet leafhoppers when it uses them as vectors. However the authors also noted how this damage was not as significant as seen in other insects which may suggest that the beet leafhopper may be co-evolving to reduce harm by S. citri pathogens. In a follow-up study to understand the exact mechanism of uptake of S. citri cells by beet leafhopper gut cells, researchers developed a line of beet leafhopper cells called the CT1 cell line. They used this cell line to study how leafhopper cells interacted with S. citri cells in vivo. After incubation of beet leafhopper cells with S. citri cells, researchers used an electron microscope to see how cell lines interact. They found that S. citri cells were pressed against the cell membranes of C. tenellus cells, and they also observed invaginations of the cell membrane. They concluded that these sighting were consistent with previous studies which suggested that S. citri cells are taken up by beet leafhopper cells by endocytosis. Beet curly top virus The beet leafhopper is the lone insect vector of the beet curly top virus (BCTV) which causes disease in many important crops like beans, sugar beet, cantaloupe, cucumber, peppers, spinach, squash, tomato, watermelon and other important plants. The beet leafhopper is also responsible for transmission of two other strains of the Beet curly top virus, which