The production of winter barley in Germany is threatened by a number of insect- and fungus-transmitted viruses. The situation is now worsened by the discovery of a new soil-borne virus. It was isolated from barley varieties possessing resistance to viruses of the barley yellow mosaic disease complex. The new virus has two sizes of rod-shaped virions that measure about 180 nm and 300 nm in length and 20 nm in diameter and can be decorated by immunogold labeling using selected furovirus-specific antibodies. Based on results of serological tests and preliminary molecular analysis, the new barley virus was closely related to isolates of Soil-borne cereal mosaic virus or Soil-borne wheat mosaic virus, two viruses hitherto only isolated in Germany from rye, triticale and winter wheat but never from winter barley. Further investigations will focus on the geographic distribution and relative importance of the new furovirus in Germany and on its identity to similar furoviruses isolated from barley in France and Japan.
