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Etiology

Association of Maize Rough Dwarf Virus with Mal de Rio Cuarto in Argentina. Robert G. Milne, Istituto di Fitovirologia applicata del CNR, via O. Vigliani 104, 10135 Torino, Italy; Guido Boccardo(2), Elena Dal Bó(3), and Fernando Nome(4). (2)Istituto di Fitovirologia applicata del CNR, via O. Vigliani 104, 10135 Torino, Italy; (3)(4)Instituto de Ciencias Agronomicas, Universidad Nacional de Cordoba, Casilla de Correo 509, 5000 Cordoba, Argentina. Phytopathology 73:1290-1292. Accepted for publication 19 April 1983. Copyright 1983 The American Phytopathological Society. DOI: 10.1094/Phyto-73-1290.

Mal de Rio Cuarto (MRC) is a severe disease of maize in Argentina. Its symptoms are like those caused by maize rough dwarf virus (MRDV), which has hitherto been reported only from the Mediterranean and surrounding regions. Samples of plants affected with MRC were examined by immunoelectron microscopy and by polyacrylamide gel electrophoretic analysis of double-stranded RNA. The tests showed the presence in diseased plants of MRDV-like particles that reacted with MRDV antisera, and of double-stranded RNA species corresponding in electrophoretic pattern with MRDV RNA. MRC is, therefore, associated with and likely to be caused by a strain of MRDV.