VIEW ARTICLE

Physiology and Biochemistry

Host Range, Purification, Serology, and Properties of a Carlavirus from Eggplant. J. A. Khalil, Department of Plant Pathology, University of Arizona, Tucson 85721; M. R. Nelson(2), and R. E. Wheeler(3). (2)(3)Department of Plant Pathology, University of Arizona, Tucson 85721. Phytopathology 72:1064-1068. Accepted for publication 31 December 1981. Copyright 1982 The American Phytopathological Society. DOI: 10.1094/Phyto-72-1064.

Mottling of leaves of eggplant (Solanum melongena) was found to be related to virus infection. The disease agent was placed in the carlavirus group on the basis of particle length (693 nm) and the lack of cytoplasmic inclusions in crude preparations. The virus is readily transmitted mechanically; it induces leaf mottle and mosaic in various eggplant cultivars and mottle, mosaic, or leaf necrosis in tobacco species and cultivars. Susceptible hosts were found in five of the 26 plant families tested and the largest number of suscepts were in the Solanaceae. The virus was purified by clarification of root extracts in butanol followed by differential centrifugation. The virus was neither transmitted by seeds obtained from diseased eggplants nor by Myzus persicae. It was inactivated after 10 min at 70 C, 7 days at 25 C, and in dilutions ranging from 10^–3 to 10^–4. Purified preparations of virus were immunogenic with antisera titers of 1:32 obtained as determined by immunoelectron microscopy and microprecipitin tests.