Properties of lucerne transient streak virus, and evidence of its affinity to southern bean mosaic virus

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Abstract
SUMMARY: A virus obtained from naturally infected lucerne (Medicago sativa) in New Zealand reacted with antiserum to an Australian isolate of lucerne transient streak virus (LTSV). Some plants infected with New Zealand isolates showed yellow flecks along lateral veins of leaves; symptoms were transient in some lucerne plants but persistent in others. A New Zealand isolate (LTSV‐NZ) infected 14 of 39 plant species tested by mechanical inoculation, but was not transmitted by five aphid species. In sap of Nicotiana clevelandii, LTSV‐NZ was infective after storage for 4 wk at 20 oC, diluting to 10‐5, or heating for 10 min at 70 oC. Purified virus preparations contained a single electrophoretic component and a single sedimenting component (s20w= 112 S) which formed a single buoyant density component in CsCl (1.37 g cm‐3) but two density components in Cs2SO4 (1.26 and 1.32 g cm‐3). LTSV‐NZ particles were stable in 10 ITIM EDTA at pH 5, but not at pH 8, being degraded into two sedimenting components of 105 S and 92 S. Particles contained c. 18% RNA in the form of one single‐stranded RNA molecule of mol. wt 1–4 times 106, and a polypeptide of mol. wt c. 32 400. LTSV‐NZ was serologically unrelated to 24 other isometric plant viruses. However, its properties are similar to those of southern bean mosaic virus and allied viruses. The present cryptogram of LTSV is R/l: 1–4/(18):S/S:S/*.