Some Physicochemical Properties of Maize Rayado Fino Virus

Publisher Website
Google Scholar
Abstract
Maize rayado fino virus (RFV) was purified from infected maize (Zea mays) leaves. The virus had 2 components: empty shells and complete virus particles with sedimentation coefficients of 54S and 120S, respectively, and buoyant densities of 1.28 and 1.46 g/ml in CsCl and 1.24 and 1.37 g/ml in Cs2SO4. Virus particles were stable from pH 7-pH 4 but not at pH 3. Isoelectric focusing of purified empty capsids revealed a single band in the pH range of 6-6.2. RFV contained 33-36% of single-stranded (ss)RNA of MW .apprx. 2 .times. 106. Dissociated coat protein migrated in acrylamide gel electrophoresis as a main band with an average MW of 2.1 .times. 104. RFV shares several biological and physicochemical properties with oat blue dwarf virus. These viruses appear to represent a new group of small RNA viruses, transmitted propagatively by their cicadellid vectors.