Poster: Diseases of Plants: Crop Loss Assessment
433-P
Wheat streak mosaic virus differentially affects soft red winter wheat cultivars
B. HODGE (1), L. Stewart (2), P. Paul (3) (1) The Ohio State University, U.S.A.; (2) United States Department of Agriculture-Agricultural Research Service, U.S.A.; (3) The Ohio State University, U.S.A.
Wheat viruses are known to impact production throughout the world. A statewide survey conducted in 2012 identified several viruses in wheat samples taken from fourteen Ohio counties. Wheat streak mosaic virus (WSMV) was identified in samples from two counties, Auglaize and Champaign. WSMV is a positive sense, single-stranded RNA virus transmitted by wheat curl mites (Aceria tosichella), and is known to cause severe yield loss and stunting in hard red winter wheat. However, there is little information available about WSMV specific to soft red winter wheat cultivars grown in Ohio. To assess its potential impact, nineteen Ohio cultivars were mechanically inoculated with WSMV at Feekes stage 1. All cultivars supported systemic infection. Over 21 days post-inoculation, individual plants were rated for symptom severity, final height, and final wet weight. Across cultivars, inoculated plants exhibited an average 13.2% decrease in plant height, and a 32.1% decrease in wet weight. The cultivars differed in virus responses, as determined by generalized linear mixed model analysis. This experiment demonstrates that WSMV infection affects soft red winter wheat cultivars differentially, which may lead to the identification of cultivars that minimize yield loss.