BIOLOGICAL AND SEROLOGICAL PROPERTIES OF STRAINS OF BARLEY MILD MOSAIC-VIRUS

The biological and serological properties of two Japanese barley mild mosaic virus (BaMMV) strains (BaMMV-Ka1 and BaMMV-Na1) and a German Ba MMV strain (BaMMV-M) were compared. Mechanical inoculation experiments showed that these three strains differed from one another in their ab ility to infect specific barley cultivars. BaMMV-Ka1 and BaMMV-M cause d similar symptoms, but BaMMV-Na1 clearly differed from them in its sy mptoms on some barley cultivars. The three BaMMV strains efficiently i nfected barley plants at 15 degrees C, whereas at 20 degrees C BaMMV-K a1 and BaMMV-M also infected many plants but BaMMV-Na1 infected only a few. BaMMV-Ka1 and BaMMV-M were indistinguishable by ELISA, while BaM MV-Na1 was distinguished from both. The biological and serological var iability reported shows that BaMMV occurs as two distinct strains in J apan.