biologia plantarum

Biologia plantarum 14:302-304, 1972 | DOI: 10.1007/BF02935857

Virus origin of the oat sterile dwarf disease

J. Brčák¹, O. Králík¹, J. Vacke²

¹ Institute of Experimental Botany, Czechoslovak Academy of Sciences, Praha, Czechoslovakia

² Plant Protection Institute, Praha-Ruzyně, Czechoslovakia

Virus particles (approximately 73 nm in diam.) usually showing an inner capside (45 nm in diam.) and similar to diplornaviruses, esp. reoviruses, were found in some cells of enations inAvena sativa andArrhenatherum elatius leaves infected with the oat sterile dwarf disease (OSDD). (The same virus particles were described by the authors in 1966 in the leafhopper vector.)
Mycoplasma-like microorganisms found in1969 in the OSDD leafhopper vector were absent in OSDD infected plants. Tetracycline did not affect symptom development in plants and did not alter the infectivity of the vector.
Therefore, OSDD is apparently of virus origin; mycoplasmas-like bodies found formerly in the OSDD vector are probably not involved in OSDD etiology.

Received: January 20, 1972; Published: July 1, 1972  Show citation