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Purification and Further Characterization of Panicum Mosaic Virus. C. L. Niblett, Department of Plant Pathology, Kansas State University, Manhattan 66506; A. Q. Paulsen, Department of Plant Pathology, Kansas State University, Manhattan 66506. Phytopathology 65:1157-1160. Accepted for publication 15 May 1975. DOI: 10.1094/Phyto-65-1157.

Panicum mosaic virus (PMV) infected 15 additional grass species, but 60 dicotyledonous species were immune. Desiccated tissues contained infectious virus after 7 years of storage at 4 C, but purified PMV was unstable. PMV was purified from Ohio 28 corn by chloroform-butanol clarification and differential centrifugation. A_260/280 was 1.5 and dilutions to A₂₆₀ = 0.00004 were infectious. Two ultraviolet-absorbing components sedimenting at 42 S and 109 S were detected in sucrose density gradients. Only the 109 S component was infectious, and mixing the components did not enhance infectivity. Isometric particles, 28 nm in diameter, were observed in purified, PTA-stained preparations. PMV was not serologically related to brome mosaic, barley stripe mosaic, or foxtail mosaic viruses, but was serologically related to the virus which causes decline of St. Augustine grass in Texas.