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Pathogenicity of wheat streak mosaic virus in maize
Abstract
Wheat streak mosaic is a serious, endemic disease of cereals in much of the world, including the Great Plains region of the United States. Wheat streak mosaic virus (WSMV) has filamentous virions composed of a $\sim$8.5 kilobase messenger-sense, single-stranded RNA genome and a $\sim$45 kilodalton capsid protein and is efficiently transmitted by the wheat curl mite, Eriophyes tulipae Keifer. A protoplast system was developed to facilitate study of WSMV replication and virus-host interactions. Wheat protoplasts were readily infected with WSMV by electroporation. Accumulation of two viral gene products, capsid protein and cylindrical inclusion body protein, was monitored in WSMV-infected protoplasts by immunoprecipitation. Optimum infection was obtained with 100 $\mu$g WSMV and 3 x 10$\sp5$ cells/ml. Cuvette geometry had negligible effect on the establishment of infection. Viral capsid protein was detected as early as 12 hr after electroporation and 10 hr for inclusion body protein by immunoprecipitation. Accumulation of both proteins was maximal during the period from 12 to 24 hours post inoculation. This system was extended to examine the nature of resistance to WSMV in two maize varieties. It was found that WSMV replicated in protoplasts from Golden Cross Bantam (GCB) maize (resistant variety) as well as in Ohio 28 (susceptible variety). Thus, resistance was not expressed at the single cell level. Resistance of whole GCB plants to WSMV was also not expressed at 35$\sp\circ$C. Further, WSMV infected GCB in the presence of maize dwarf strain B of sugarcane mosaic virus (SCMV). This suggests that resistance to WSMV in GCB acts in blocking systemic movement of the virus and that SCMV provides a transport function. Co-infection of GCB with maize dwarf mosaic virus strain A and a Lincoln isolate of maize dwarf mosaic virus did not allow WSMV systemic infection.
Subject Area
Plant pathology
Recommended Citation
Liu, Yen-Jen, "Pathogenicity of wheat streak mosaic virus in maize" (1992). ETD collection for University of Nebraska-Lincoln. AAI9233408.
https://digitalcommons.unl.edu/dissertations/AAI9233408