Response of hard red winter wheat to Soilborne wheat mosaic virus using novel inoculation methods

Soilborne wheat mosaic virus (SBWMV) is an agronomically important pathogen of wheat that is transmitted by the soilborne plasmodiophorid vector Polymyxa graminis. In the laboratory, attempts to generate SBWMV-infected plants are often hampered by poor infectivity of the virus. To analyze the mechanism for virus resistance in wheat cultivars, we developed novel inoculation techniques. A new technique for foliar inoculation of SBWMV was developed that eliminated wound-induced necrosis normally associated with rub inoculating virus to wheat leaves. This new technique is important because we can now uniformly inoculate plants in the laboratory for studies of host resistance mechanisms in the inoculated leaf. Additionally, wheat plants were grown hydroponically in seed germination pouches and their roots were inoculated with SBWMV either by placing P. graminis-infested root material in the pouch or by mechanically inoculating the roots with purified virus. The susceptibility of one SBWMV susceptible and three field resistant wheat cultivars were analyzed following inoculation of plants using these novel inoculation techniques or the conventional inoculation technique of growing plants in P. graminis-infested soil. The results presented in this study suggest that virus resistance in wheat likely functions in the roots to block virus infection.