Crop Genebank Knowledge Base

Health diagnosis

Health diagnosis of cultivated barley and wild relatives genetic resources

Contributors to this page: ICARDA, Syria (Ahmed Amri, Bilal Humeid, Kenneth Street, Natalya Rukhkyan, Jan Konopka, Siham Asaad, Adnan Omran and Fida Alô).

List of pests and diseases of quarantine importance for barley

Click here for more detailed outputs from the page on the safe transfer of germplasm, on this website.

See also the list of pests and diseases for this crop listed in the crop regeneration guidelines.

Options for testing procedures

Ustilago nuda (embryo count method).
Ustilago hordei (seed washing test).
Pyrenophora graminea (freezing blotter method).
Xanthomonas translucens pv. undulosa (YDC agar and semi-selective XTS agar).
Gibberella zeae and Monographella nivalis (freezing blotter method).
Pyrenophora teres (freezing blotter method, PDA).
Cochliobolus sativus (freezing blotter method, PDA).
Barley stripe mosaic virus (ELISA and TBIA [tissue-blot immunoassay]).

Testing intervals/seasons

Ustilago nuda, Ustilago hordei - Field inspection at flowering stage.
Pyrenophora gramínea - Field inspection from seedling up to maturity and testing seed after harvest.
Xanthomonas translucens pv. Undulosa - Field inspection at seedling and heading, and testing seed after harvest.
Gibberella zeae and Monographella nivalis - Field inspection at maturity stage and testing seed after harvest.
Pyrenophora teres, Cochliobolus sativus, Barley stripe mosaic virus (BCMV) - Field inspection from seedling to maturity and testing seed after harvest.

Recording information during health diagnosis

The following information should be recorded for each step:

Accession number.
Date (of diagnosis).
Field number (to record the history of field).
Experiment code or number.
Plot number.
Pathogen tested.
Result of test (using appropriate scoring methods).

References and further reading

Rao NK, Hanson J, Dulloo ME, Ghosh K, Nowel D, Larinde M. 2006. Manual of seed handling in genebanks. Handbooks for Genebanks No. 8. Bioversity International, Rome, Italy. Available in English (1.5 MB), Spanish (1.4 MB) and French (1.9 MB).