Natural Infection of Pearl Millet and Sorghum by Wheat Streak Mosaic Virus in Kansas. D. L. Seifers, Associate Professor, Kansas State University Agricultural Research Center-Hays. T. L. Harvey, Professor, Kansas State University, Department of Entomology; and K. D. Kofoid and W. D. Stegmeier, Associate Professors, Kansas State University, Agricultural Research Center-Hays, Hays 67601. Plant Dis. 80:179-185. Accepted for publication 6 November 1995. Copyright 1996 The American Phytopathological Society. DOI: 10.1094/PD-80-0179.

Pearl millet (Pennisetum glaucum) and sorghum (Sorghum bicolor) plants at Hays, Kansas, were observed to have viruslike symptoms. Symptomatic plants were tested by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) against wheat streak mosaic virus (WSMV), maize dwarf mosaic, sugarcane mosaic virus strain MDMV-B, and johnsongrass mosaic virus. Positive reactions were obtained only with WSMV antisera. Pearl millet and sorghum plants (of genotypes naturally infected in the field) mechanically inoculated in the greenhouse developed symptoms and were positive in ELISA for WSMV. The virus was vectored by wheat curl mites (Aceria tosichella) from pearl millet and sorghum to the host from which it was obtained and to wheat. Mechanical inoculation of several sorghum lines showed that the WSMV isolates differed in ability to infect sorghum, and the type specimen could not infect any of the sorghum lines. These results indicated that WSMV occurring at Hays can infect sorghum and pearl millet, crop plants not reported previously as susceptible to WSMV