VIEW ARTICLE

Molecular Plant Pathology

Identification and Characterization of Wheat Dwarf Virus from France Using a Rapid Method for Geminivirus DNA Preparation. M. Bendahmane, Institut des Sciences Végétales, Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique, 91198 Gif-sur-Yvette, France; H.-J. Schalk(2), and B. Gronenborn(3). (2)Max-Planck-Institut für Züchtungsforschung, D-50829 Köln, Germany; (3)Institut des Sciences Végétales, Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique, 91198 Gif-sur-Yvette, France. Phytopathology 85:1449-1455. Accepted for publication 26 June 1995. Copyright 1995 The American Phytopathological Society. DOI: 10.1094/Phyto-85-1449.

Using molecular analyses, we identified wheat dwarf geminivirus (WDV), a leafhopper-transmitted geminivirus prevalent in northern and eastern Europe, as the causative agent of a recent wheat dwarf outbreak in France. A novel, simple, and rapid method for purification of circular DNA from small amounts of plant tissue was described and was applied to clone the genome of WDV-F. The cloned WDV-F DNA was shown to be infectious on wheat (Triticum aestivum) following agroinoculation, and progeny virus was transmitted by leafhoppers. The DNA sequence of the WDV-F genome consists of 2,750 bases, differs by only 1.3 and 1.4% from the WDV isolates from Sweden and Czechoslovakia, respectively, and represents a new isolate of WDV.