A screening method to detect BYDV-PAV resistance in cereals under glasshouse conditions

Abstract

A reliable method was developed to screen cereal crops for BYDV-PAV resistance in glasshouse experiments. This also entailed the evaluation of traits associated with Barley yellow dwarf virus (BYDV) infection such as leaf discolouration, reduction in growth, biomass and yield traits, and percentage of virus-infected plants, using enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) and tissue blot immunoassay (TBIA). Four glasshouse experiments were conducted with eight wheat, barley and oat varieties inoculated with BYDV-PAV at the 2-leaf stage, using different numbers of viruliferous aphids and different inoculation periods and temperatures. Inoculation with 5–10 viruliferous aphids per plant for 4 days led to a high percentage of infection in susceptible varieties, indicating that this is an effective BYDV screening method when selecting for resistance in cereal crops. For barley and oat, visual evaluation of symptoms is considered adequate for assessing BYDV resistance. However, for wheat it is necessary to evaluate BYDV resistance by ELISA/TBIA tests and plant biomass (at early stage) and grain number and yield (at late stage) measurements.