Abstract
Gramineous species (100), comprising 51 native and 49 adventive grasses, were tested for reaction to inoculation with maize dwarf mosaic virus strains A (MDMV-A) and B (MDMV-B) and sugarcane mosaic virus strain B (SCMV-B) [principal viruses infecting corn Zea mays]. Among these, 57 grasses, belonging to 26 genera, were new hosts of MDMV-A, MDMV-B, and/or SCMV-B. Of the 57 hosts, 54 were susceptible to MDMV-A, 44 were susceptible to MDMV-B and 50 were susceptible to SCMV-B. The 3 virus strains had 42 hosts in common. Most of the common hosts were more susceptible, in terms of disease incidence and severity, to MDMV-A than to MDMV-B or SCMV-B. No differences were found in the host range of the Mississippi and Ohio isolates of MDMV-A. New host species were found in the following 8 genera not previously reported as containing hosts of MDMV or SCMV: Arthraxon, Brachypodium, Hyparrhenia, Leersia, Tragus, Trichachne, Trichloris and Vaseyochloa. Many of the new grass species are perennial, and some are widely distributed. These could be reservoir hosts of MDMV or SCMV and could thus play a role in the epiphytology of these diseases. Differences in the host ranges of MDMV-A, MDMV-B and SCMV-B make it possible to propose a set of grasses for identifying and separating these virus strains. Infectivity data indicate that MDMV-B may be more closely related to SCMV-B than is MDMV-A.

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