Disease Note.

First Report of Bamboo Mosaic Virus and Its Associated Satellite RNA on Bamboo in the U.S. N.-S. Lin, B.-Y. Lin, and T.-Y. Yeh, Institute of Botany, Academia Sinica, Taipei, Taiwan 115; and Y.-H. Hsu, Agricultural Biotechnology Laboratories, National Chung Hsing University, Taichung, Taiwan 400, R.C. Plant Dis. 79:1249. Accepted for publication 26 September 1995. Copyright 1995 The American Phytopathological Society. DOI: 10.1094/PD-79-1249B.

Mosaic and yellowish streak symptoms were observed on Beechey bamboo (Bambusa beecheyana) growing in the San Diego Zoo, San Diego, CA. Bamboo mosaic potexvirus (BaMV) RNA and its associated satellite RNA (sBaMV) were detected by tissue print hybridization in the symptomatic Beechey bamboo using BaMV RNA–specific (1) and sBaMV-specific (^32)P-labeled riboprobes (2), respectively. Gel electrophoresis of purified virion RNAs from Beechey bamboo revealed two RNA species with estimated sizes of 6,400 and 850 nucleotides, which correspond to the genomic sizes of BaMV and sBaMV, respectively (2). Electron microscopy revealed both typical potexvirus particles and heterologous shorter particles in the negatively stained leaf extracts from Beechey bamboo. Immunogold labels using anti–BaMV capsid protein serum decorated both types of particles but no positive reactions were observed with normal rabbit serum. Sodium dodecyl sulfate–polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis of purified virions revealed one polypeptide with a molecular weight estimated to be 30,000. This protein reacted to anti–BaMV capsid protein serum in Western blot analyses. These results suggest that virions purifed from Beechey bamboo retain all the properties of BaMV and sBaMV. This is the first report of detection of BaMV and sBaMV on bamboo grown in the United States.

References: (1) N.-S. Lin et al. Plant Dis. 77:448, 1993. (2) N.-S. Lin et al. Virology 202:707, 1994.