Psathyrostachys huashanica, a potential resource for resistance to Barley yellow dwarf virus-GAV

Barley/cereal yellow dwarf viruses (B/CYDVs) are recognized as serious pathogens of wheat. It is critical to find diverse sources of resistance to reduce yield losses caused by B/CYDVs. Psathyrostachys huashanica Keng, a perennial wheat-relative species, has been regarded as a potential germplasm resource because of its excellent performance on resistance to drought, salinity, wheat stripe rust and the take-all fungus. In this work, the susceptibility to BYDV-GAV of P. huashanica was evaluated following inoculation using reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) and double antibody sandwich-enzyme linked immunosorbent assay (DAS-ELISA). Additionally, an aphid-transmission test was conducted for further verification of virus infection. The results indicated that BYDV-GAV could infect P. huashanica but accumulated to much lower level in inoculated leaves of P. huashanica than in the leaves of resistant wheat line Zhong 5 and the susceptible wheat line 7182. However, no BYDV-GAV particles could be detected in new leaves of inoculated P. huashanica. In this study, we first demonstrated that P. huashanica is highly resistant to BYDV-GAV and possibly has a negative effect on the movement of the viral particles from inoculated leaves to new leaves.