First results on BYDV-tolerance in barley estimated in pot experiments

Barley yellow dwarf virus (BYDV) is considered as an important disease of b arley in Europe. In order to get information about the mode of inheritance of tolerance to BYDV-PAV, pot experiments using four doubled haploid barley populations (DHs) derived from crosses of tolerant and less tolerant genot ypes were carried out. The level of tolerance of each DH line was determine d by measuring yield parameters and morphological data. Concerning the reac tion to a BYDV-PAV infection, significant differences were observed and a g ood fit to a Gaussian distribution of the grain yield of infected plants in relation to non-infected control plants gives hint to a quantitative mode of inheritance of tolerance. The comparison of ELISA values of tolerant and less tolerant DH-lines did nor show a clear correlation between virus tite r and tolerance level measured as relative grain yield of infected plants.