VIEW ARTICLE

Isolation and Characterization of Oat Blue Dwarf Virus Ribonucleic Acid. D. R. Pring, Postdoctoral Fellow, Department of Plant Pathology, University of Nebraska, Lincoln 68503, Present address of Senior author: USDA, Plant Virus Laboratory, University of Florida, Gainesville 32601; R. J. Zeyen(2), and E. E. Banttari(3). (2)(3)Research Associate and Associate Professor, respectively, Department of Plant Pathology, University of Minnesota, St. Paul 55101. Phytopathology 63:393-396. Accepted for publication 3 October 1972. DOI: 10.1094/Phyto-63-393.

Purified preparations of oat blue dwarf virus (OBDV) yielded a single virus zone with a sedimentation coefficient (S) of 119 S, using brome mosaic virus and southern bean mosaic virus as sedimentation markers. Material collected from the zone was infectious when injected into Macrosteles fascifrons, (Stal), the vector of OBDV. Viral RNA was released from the particles in each of five bentonite-containing buffers at pH 9.0, and yielded single-stranded RNA with a sedimentation coefficient of 31.9 S. The viral RNA was alkali-labile, susceptible to ribonuclease (0.1 µg/ml) degradation, and was resistant to deoxyribonuclease (50 µg/ml). Formaldehyde-treated OBDV-RNA sedimented at 21.1 S, and the molecular weight of the RNA was estimated to be 2.13 × 10⁶ daltons.