The characterisation of Ornithogalum mosaic virus

Ornithogalum mosaic virus (OMV) is the most serious pathogen of commercially grown Ornithogalum and Lachenalia species in South Africa. Although omithogalum mosaic disease was first reported as early as 1940, attempts to purify or characterise the virus(es) were not successful. The extremely mucilaginous nature of omithogalum and lachenalia plant extracts severely hampered virus purification from these hosts. No alternative propagation host for OMV is known: a virus purification protocol for systemically infected ornithogalum and lachenalia was therefore developed. This method eliminated the mucilage in leaf extracts by hemicellulase digestion. Physicochemical characterisation of purified particles suggested that a single virus was present: it had elongated, filamentous particles with a modal length in the range 720- 760 nm; a single major coat protein of Mᵣ30 000, and a single genomic ssRNA of Mᵣ2.90 x 10⁶ daltons. Oligo(dT)-cellulose chromatography confirmed that the genomic RNA was polyadenylated.

Grantor dc:publisher.institution

Department of Molecular and Cell Biology

Year dc:date.issued

1991

Author dc:creator

• Burger, Johan Theodorus

Advisor dc:contributor.advisor

• Von Wechmar, M Barbara

Language dc:language.iso

eng

Handle dc:identifier.uri

http://hdl.handle.net/11427/21824

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:open.uct.ac.za:11427/21824