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Purification and Properties of a Severe Strain of Peanut Mottle Virus. M. K. C. Sun, Former Graduate Research Assistant, Department of Plant Pathology, North Carolina State University, Raleigh 27607; T. T. Hebert, Professor of Plant Pathology, Department of Plant Pathology, North Carolina State University, Raleigh 27607. Phytopathology 62:832-839. Accepted for publication 31 January 1972. DOI: 10.1094/Phyto-62-832.

A disease of peanut having chlorotic, sometimes necrotic, mosaic leaf symptoms is caused by a severe strain of peanut mottle virus (PMV-s). Of 30 mechanically inoculated species in eight plant families, only nine species of Leguminosae were infected by PMV-s. Peanut yield reduction in the field was 40 and 70% in cultivars Florigiant and NC2, respectively. Seed transmission was 0.001% in NC2. In sap from garden pea, properties were: thermal inactivation between 60 and 65 C; dilution end point between 10^-3 and 10^-4; and longevity at room temperature between 12 and 14 hr with a half-life of 83 min. Virus was purified from garden pea by chloroform-butanol clarification, polyethylene glycol precipitation, and resuspension of the virus in 0.025 M phosphate buffer, pH 7.4, containing 0.02 M sodium sulfite and either 0.2 to 0.6 M urea or 0.2 M guanidine-HCl. Particles of PMV-s are flexuous rods with a normal length of 740 nm. Virus inclusions were similar to those produced by members of the potato virus Y group. The virus was not serologically related to soybean mosaic, potato Y, or tobacco etch viruses.