An Experimental Host Range for Triticum mosaic virus

Triticum mosaic virus (TriMV) was first identified infecting wheat (Triticum aestivum L.) in Kansas in 2006 (16). TriMV has since been identified from infected wheat in: Colorado, Nebraska, Oklahoma, South Dakota, Texas, and Wyoming (2). The virus is mechanically transmissible, and associated with a 35-kDa coat protein when analyzed by sodium dodecyl sulfate polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis (SDSPAGE). Antiserum raised to the coat protein preferentially reacted only to TriMV in an enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) and a Western blot assay. Symptomatic plants were shown to be associated with flexuous rods when analyzed by electron microscopy. The sequence of the coat protein of TriMV was determined by time-of-flight mass spectroscopy and from DNA sequenced of cloned, reverse-transcribed viral RNA. TriMV was found to be distantly related to Sugarcane streak mosaic virus (16). The complete nucleotide sequences of the Kansas 06-123 isolate (5) and a Nebraska isolate (25) of TriMV have been determined. Wheat curl mites (WCM) (Aceria tosichella Keifer) were observed on plants originally infected with TriMV (16). Subsequent studies using WCM obtained from Ellis County, KS demonstrated that these WCM could transmit TriMV both singly and in combination with Wheat streak mosaic virus (WSMV; 15). The WCM also transmits WSMV (22) and the High Plains virus (HPV) (12). Previously, only wheat and barley have been confirmed as hosts of TriMV (16); therefore, we tested a greater range of plants for susceptibility to mechanical infection with TriMV to determine an experimental host range for this virus and identify plant species that might serve as differential hosts for TriMV and WSMV.