Effect of Plant Age at Time of Inoculation with Maize Dwarf Mosaic Virus on Disease Development and Yield in Corn

Publisher Website
Google Scholar
Abstract
When corn (Zea mays) plants of 2 susceptible hybrids were manually inoculated with maize dwarf mosaic virus strain A (MDMV-A) in the 3-, 5-, 7-, 9- and 11-leaf stages during 2 growing seasons, the highest disease incidence (58%) and the greatest yield reduction (23%) were obtained in plants inoculated at the 5-leaf stage. There was no significant difference in disease incidence or in yield reduction between plants inoculated in the 3-leaf stage and those inoculated in the 7-leaf stage when data for the 2 hybrids were combined. Both sets of plants were 47-50% diseased and showed a yield reduction of 15-16%. A delay in inoculation until the 11-leaf stage resulted in a disease incidence 1/2 as great and a yield reduction 1/3 as great as those obtained for plants inoculated in the 5-leaf stage. Groups of plants inoculated at different stages showed no significant difference in plant height. The average height reduction in all inoculated plants of both hybrids in the 2 yr amounted to 5.4%. Calculations of extrapolated yields for a hypothetical 100% infection rate revealed that yield losses would be surprisingly uniform (36% on the average) for plants inoculated between the 3-leaf and the 11-leaf stages. Under particularly favorable conditions for infection and disease development, MDMV-A has the potential for reducing grain yield in a highly susceptible hybrid by as much as 45%.

This publication has 0 references indexed in Scilit: