A Strain of Eggplant Mosaic Virus Isolated from Naturally Infected Tobacco Plants in Brazil. Simone G. Ribeiro, Departamento de Biologia Celular, Universidade de Brasilia, 70970, Brasilia, DF, Brazil. Elliot W. Kitajima, and Claudia R. B. Oliveira, Departamento de Biologia Celular, Universidade de Brasilia, 70970, Brasilia, DF, Brazil; and Renate Koenig, Biologische Bundesanstalt fur Land und Forstwirtschaft, Institut fur Viruskrankheiten der Pflanzen, Braunschweig, Germany. Plant Dis. 80:446. Accepted for publication 28 December 1995. Copyright 1996 The American Phytopathological Society. DOI: 10.1094/PD-80-0446.

A tymovirus was isolated from Nicotiana tabacum plants with mosaic symptoms from a commercial plantation in Brazil. The virus was readily sap-transmitted to Chenopodium quinoa, C. amaranticolor, and several species of the Solanaceae, and was transmitted experimentally by the chrysomelid beetle Diabrotica speciosa. Purified preparations contained isometric particles 26 nm in diameter that sedimented as two components with sedimentation coefficients of 52S and 108S. Electrophoretic analysis showed a single type of RNA of 2 x 10⁶ Da and a capsid composed of a single polypeptide of about 22 kDa. The virus reacted with antisera to belladonna mottle. Andean potato latent, dulcamara mottle, and scrophularia mosaic viruses, and the type, Abelia latent, and tomato white necrosis (TWN) strains of eggplant mosaic virus (EMV). It was found to be serologically identical to TWN strain of EMV although it differed from this virus in some biological properties, i.e., its ability to systemically infect Nicotiana tabacum cultivars and its inability to cause systemic symptoms in tomato.