VIEW ARTICLE

Properties of a Virus Isolated from Golden Elderberry, Sambucus nigra aurea. A. Juergen Hansen, Research Scientist, Canada Department of Agriculture, Research Station, Summerland and Vancouver, British Columbia; R. Stace-Smith, Research Scientist, Canada Department of Agriculture, Research Station, Summerland and Vancouver, British Columbia. Phytopathology 61:1222-1229. Accepted for publication 17 May 1971. DOI: 10.1094/Phyto-61-1222.

A virus has been consistently isolated from Golden Elderberry, Sambucus nigra aurea. Two other golden forms, S. canadensis aurea and S. plumosa aurea, were found to be free from sap-transmissible viruses. The Golden Elderberry virus (GEV) was capable of infecting 44 out of 55 herbaceous hosts tested, and was seed-transmitted in Chenopodium amaranticolor, Nicotiana clevelandii, N. megalosiphon, N. tabacum, and Phaseolus vulgaris. Twenty per cent of the sap-inoculated Prunus avium and P. persica seedlings, and 66% of the similarly inoculated Sambucus seedlings, became infected. The virus was spherical, and had a diameter of ca. 30 nm. On a sucrose gradient, it separated into two opalescent bands with sedimentation coefficients of 114 S and 132 S. Both bands were infective and serologically identical. A GEV-antiserum with a titer of 1:640 was used to establish that GEV is unrelated to 14 other spherical viruses, six of which had previously been isolated from elderberry. Serological relationships between GEV and some strains of cherry leaf roll virus may exist. The virus seems to be responsible for the rings and arcs observed in S. nigra aurea, but not for the golden leaf coloration.