A potyvirus isolated from solanaceous hosts

A potyvirus was isolated from Datura stramonium, Lycopersicon esculentum (tomato) and Solanum nigrum in the Yemen. It was transmitted mechanically and by Myzus persicae in a non-persistent manner. Its flexuous rod-shaped particles had a mean length of 719 nm and some of its pinwheel inclusion bodies in infected Nicotiana clevelandii leaves were unusual in that they were dichotomously branched. The virus infected various solanaceous species, but the symptoms it induced were distinct from those of pepper veinal mottle (PVMV) and potato Y viruses. Its particles were purified from N. glutinosa and their coat protein had an atypically high molecular mass a potyvirus of 41·5 kDa. They showed a distant serological relationship to those of PVMV and potato virus V in ISEM decoration tests, but did not react with antisera to particles of any other potyvirus tested. The virus has been tentatively named tomato mild mottle virus.