Purification and Properties of Sweet Potato Feathery Mottle Virus

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Abstract
An isolate of sweet potato feathery mottle virus was recovered from ''Georgia Red'' sweet potato [Ipomoea batatas] plants exhibiting interveinal chlorotic spotting and vein mottling. The virus was readily sap-transmissible when diluted 10-fold in 0.05 M potassium phosphate buffer, pH 7.2. It was nonpersistently transmitted by Aphis gossypii, A. craccivora, Lipaphis erysimi and Myzus persicae, but was not transmitted by Rhopalosiphum maidis or R. padi. Properties in Ipomoea nil sap were: thermal inactivation point 60-65.degree. C, dilution endpoint between 10-3 and 10-4 and infectivity in sap < 12 h. Twenty-seven plant species from 7 families [Amaranthaceae, Chenopodiaceae, Cruciferae, Cucurbitaceae, Leguminosae, Solanaceae, Convolvulaceae] were inoculated but only 8 Ipomoea spp. became infected. A purification procedure is described which results in 8-10 mg virus/kg infected tissue. The purified virus particles measured approximately 850 nm in length. Purified virus had a 260/280 ratio of 1.18. Antisera produced to a purified virus had a titer of 1:1024 in microprecipitin tests and 1:16 in agar double-diffusion tests.