Full text loading...
Abstract
SUMMARY
The burdocks, Arctium tomentosum and A. lappa, are afflicted with burdock stunt disease (BSD). Neither virus-like particles nor mycoplasma-like organisms have been detected in the extracts and thin sections of diseased leaves, but two disease-specific RNA species, RNA-1 and RNA-2, were found to be associated with BSD. They had a low molecular weight (RNA-1, 1.8 × 105 to 1.9 × 105; RNA-2, 1.7 × 105) estimated by analytical polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis. Preparations of RNA-1 and RNA-2 contained circular molecular structures as shown by electron microscopy. We conclude that BSD RNA-1 and RNA-2 are viroid-like and that BSD may be a disease of viroid aetiology.
- Received:
- Accepted:
- Published Online:
© Journal of General Virology 1983