Infection of Protoplasts of the Wheat Take-all Fungus, Gaeumannomyces graminis var. tritici, with Double-stranded RNA Viruses

Protoplasts from a virus-free isolate, 3b1a conD/A3, of Gaeumannomyces graminis var. tritici were inoculated with a purified preparation of a mixture of four viruses, A, B1, B2 and C, from G. graminis isolate 3b1a in the presence of polyethylene glycol. Three out of 30 fungal colonies obtained by regeneration of inoculated protoplasts were found to be infected, two with virus B1 and one with virus B2. The concentrations of these viruses in the newly infected isolates were similar to their respective concentrations in isolate 3b1a and remained stable through three serial subcultures.