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Properties of Soilborne Wheat Mosaic Virus Isolates in Nebraska. Y. H. Hsu, Agricultural Research Service, U.S. Department of Agriculture and Department of Plant Pathology, Nebraska Agricultural Experiment Station, University of Nebraska, Lincoln 68583; M. K. Brakke, Agricultural Research Service, U.S. Department of Agriculture and Department of Plant Pathology, Nebraska Agricultural Experiment Station, University of Nebraska, Lincoln 68583. Phytopathology 75:661-664. Accepted for publication 7 January 1985. This article is in the public domain and not copyrightable. It may be freely reprinted with customary crediting of the source. The American Phytopathological Society, 1985. DOI: 10.1094/Phyto-75-661.

Three properties of soilborne wheat mosaic virus (SBWMV) isolates collected in Nebraska were compared: virus-specific proteins in the infected tissue, peptide maps of coat protein after partial chemical cleavage, and RNA patterns of deletion mutants in virions purified from individual plants. Procedures for these determinations were simplified for study of viral strain variation. Virus isolates from six randomly selected fields in Nebraska were similar by these three criteria. The reason for variation in yield loss from field to field does not lie in presence of viral strains identifiable by rod length, properties of viral proteins, or propensity to mutate by deletion under controlled growing conditions.