Reciprocal Contact Transmission of Barley Stripe Mosaic Virus Between Wild Oats and Barley. Arthur W. Chiko, Agriculture Canada Research Station, Winnipeg, Manitoba R3T 2M9. Plant Dis. 67:207-208. Accepted for publication 12 July 1982. Copyright 1983 American Phytopathological Society. DOI: 10.1094/PD-67-207.

Contact transmissibility of barley stripe mosaic virus (BSMV) was examined in field plots using seed-infected plants of wild oats (Avena fatua), Herta barley (Hordeum distichum), and Conquest barley (H. vulgare) as virus sources and healthy plants of the same species as test material. The virus was transmitted by contract from wild oats to both Herta and Conquest barley but in reciprocal tests was transmitted only from Conquest barley to wild oats. The frequencies of contact transmission of BSMV in these tests were lower than the frequencies of contact transmission of the virus from infected to healthy plants of either Herta or Conquest barley. There was no evidence of contact transmission of BSMV from infected to healthy wild oats. Results obtained in this study support the notion that wild oats are involved in the epidemiology of BSMV in barley.