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Etiology

Purification and Serological Detection of Mushroom Viruslike Particles. J. W. Moyer, Former Graduate Student, Department of Plant Pathology, The Pennsylvania State University, University Park, PA 16802, Present address of senior author: Department of Plant Pathology, North Carolina State University, Raleigh, NC 27607; S. H. Smith, Professor, Department of Plant Pathology, The Pennsylvania State University, University Park, PA 16802. Phytopathology 67:1207-1210. Accepted for publication 13 April 1977. Copyright © 1977 The American Phytopathological Society, 3340 Pilot Knob Road, St. Paul, MN 55121. All rights reserved.. DOI: 10.1094/Phyto-67-1207.

A mixture of polyhedral viruslike particles (VLP’s) purified from diseased mushroom tissue was separated during rate-zonal sucrose density gradient centrifugation into intact 25-nm particles, 34-nm capsids, and intact 34-nm particles. Other minor components also were observed in the same gradients and these purified products resisted treatment with chloroform and the detergent NP-40, but lacked known viral particle morphology. Antisera prepared against the different sized VLP’s were low in titer and reacted with healthy sporophore extracts. Cross-absorbed antisera, however, had sufficient specificity and were used to detect VLP-containing mushrooms. The constant-feed micro double-diffusion technique provided the sensitivity to detect VLP’s in clarified extracts of 50 g of tissue concentrated into 2 ml of buffer. The antisera whose preparation is described here and antisera to a 19 × 50-nm particle are currently being used experimentally for indexing of mushrooms.