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Purification and Properties of Carnation Mottle Virus and its Ribonucleic Acid. H. E. Waterworth, Research Plant Pathologist, Plant Science Research Division, ARS, USDA, New Crops Research Branch, Glenn Dale, Maryland 20769; J. M. Kaper, Research Chemist, Plant Virology Laboratory, Beltsville, Maryland 20705. Phytopathology 62:959-964. Accepted for publication 28 February 1972. DOI: 10.1094/Phyto-62-959.

Carnation mottle virus (CarMV) was purified from Chenopodium quinoa tissue using activated charcoal, Mg-treated bentonite, and differential centrifugation. Yields of virus ranged from 250 to 350 mg/kg of tissue. The resuspended high-speed pellets produced two ultraviolet light-absorbing bands upon centrifugation on sucrose gradient columns; only the more rapidly sedimenting component was infectious. The virus contained 1.74% phosphorus and 18% nucleic acid. The RNA consisted of 27.5% adenylic acid, 24.1% uridylic acid, 26.1% guanylic acid, and 22.3% cytidylic acid residues. The molecular weight of the RNA and intact virus particles was 1.37 × 10⁶ and 7.5 × 10⁶, respectively. The RNA was infectious in concentrations as low as 4.68 × 10^-5 µg/ml, or about 75% of the infectivity of intact virus. Antiserum produced by immunizing a rabbit reached a titer of 1:2,048 without detectable healthy plant protein antibodies. CarMV did not react with antiserum to any of several ringspot viruses tested, including beet, carnation, lettuce, Prunus necrotic, raspberry, strawberry latent, tobacco, or tomato; nor with antisera to tobacco or cucumber necrosis, tomato black ring, Arabis mosaic, elm mosaic, sowbane mosaic, cherry leafroll, or southern bean mosaic viruses.