BREEDING FOR RESISTANCE TO BYMOVIRUSES IN POACEAE WITH SPECIAL CONSIDERATION FOR THE BARLEY YELLOW MOSAIC-VIRUS COMPLEX

Bymoviruses, ie BaYMV, BaMMV, WYMV, WSSMV, OMV and RNMV, cause serious damages to their host-plants, resulting in high yield losses in susce ptible crops. Due to their transmission by the soil-borne fungus Polym yxa graminis, chemical measures against these diseases are neither eff icient nor acceptable for economical and ecological reasons. Therefore , breeding resistant varieties is an important aim for plant breeding. Besides classical breeding methods completed by the production of DH- lines and marker-facilitated selection procedures, recombinant DNA-tec hniques may give way to new strategies in breeding for resistance to b ymovirus in Poaceae in the near future.