Two dominant genes in barley (Hordeum vulgare L.) complementarily encode perfect resistance to Japanese soil-borne wheat mosaic virus.

Japanese soil-borne wheat mosaic virus (Furovirus) is a damaging pathogen of wheat and barley. This virus can survive in the soil for several decades, so the deployment of resistant cultivars represents the only practical control measure. Here, a genetic analysis has identified two regions of the barley genome-one on chromosome 2H and the other on chromosome 3H-as harboring gene(s) encoding resistance to this virus. The joint presence of both loci, termed Jmv1 and Jmv2, made the plants essentially immune, with resistance being dominant over susceptibility at each locus. Phylogenetic analysis showed that the virus is not closely related to the type Furovirus species Soil-borne wheat mosaic virus. There was a difference between the RNA1- and RNA2-based phylogenies of the virus species in Furovirus implying the independent segregation of the virus subgenomes.