Barley yellow dwarf virus-MAV (BYDV-MAV) ELISA Kit

Disease is an integral element of agricultural and natural systems, but the roles pathogens play in determining ecosystem response to elevated CO2 have rarely been examined. To investigate whether disease can alter the response of plants to CO2, we examined the effects of doubled CO2 (approximate to 700 mu mol mol(-1)) on Avena sativa infected with barley yellow dwarf virus (BYDV), a common pathogen of cereals and grasses. Oats infected with BYDV showed a significantly greater biomass response to CO2 enrichment than did healthy plants. Root mass of diseased plants increased by 37-60% with CO2 enrichment, but was largely unaffected in healthy plants. CO2 enrichment increased midday leaf-level photosynthesis and instantaneous water use efficiency by 34 and 93% in healthy plants and by 48 and 174% in infected plants. Foliar carbohydrates increased with both CO2 enrichment and BYDV infection, but the two factors affected individual peals dissimilarly. CO2 enrichment may alter the epidemiology of BYDV by increasing the persistence of infected plants.

A synthetic hexaploid oat was produced by chromosome doubling of a sterile triploid hybrid between cultivated Avena strigosa (2n = 14) cv. Saia and a domesticated form of A. magna (2n = 28). The synthetic hexaploid was intermediate between its parents in panicle shape and lemma color, similar to the tetraploid parent in spikelet structure, and to the diploid parent in having a single, albeit partially shriveled seed per spikelet, and low protein content. By the third generation, plants with yellowish lemmas, mostly two seeds per spikelet and better filled grains had been selected. Rust resistance of the diploid parent was retained in the synthetic hexaploid, but not tolerance to barley yellow dwarf virus disease (BYDV). Chromosome associations at meiosis in the triploid hybrid was low, with over 60% of them being univalents. Bivalent association was the rule in the synthetic hexaploid with an occasional one or two quadrivalents. Regular meiosis with 21 bivalents was observed in further generations. The preferential pairing of homologous chromosomes in the synthetic hexaploid was probably contributed by the A. strigosa genome which exhibits this tendency in artificial allopolyploid situations. Selection of yellow lemma color and two seeds per spikelet suggests that the genes controlling these traits are located on the chromosomes involved in quadrivalents in the synthetic hexaploid. The potential and limitations of utilizing the synthetic hexaploid in oat research and breeding are briefly discussed.