THE MULTIPLICATION OF INSECT VIRUSES AS ORGANISMS

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Abstract
Electron micrographs of purified preparations of four different insect viruses indicate the presence of morphologically different forms, which are probably stages of multiplication. The virus first appears as a minute spherical body. This body increases in size and the virus appears as an elongated, curved body, surrounded by a membrane. Later the virus particle straightens out, ruptures the membrane, and appears as a rod-shaped particle characteristic of insect viruses. One may assume that the rod-shaped virus particle contains several smaller subunits each of which develops into a rod. The complicated nature of multiplication indicates that insect viruses are organisms with a relatively simple morphological structure of the mature rod.