Biological and Serological Properties of Strains of Barley Mild Mosaic Virus

The biological and serological properties of two Japanese harley mild mosaic virus (BaMMV) strains (BaMMV-Kal and BaMMV-Nal) and a German BaMMV strain (BaMMV-M) were compared. Mechanical inoculation experiments showed that these three strains differed from one another in their ability to infect specific barley cultivars. BaMMVKal and BaMMV-M caused similar symptoms, but BaMMV-Nal clearly differed from them in its symptoms on some barley cultivars. The three BaMMV strains efficiently infected harley plants at 15 C, whereas at 20 C BaMMV-Kal and BaMMV-M also infected many plants but BaMMV-Nal infected only a few. BaMMV-Kal and BaMMV-M were indistinguishable hy ELISA. while BaMMV-Nal was distinguished from hoth. The biological and serologica! variability reported shows that BaMMV occurs as two distinct strains in Japan