Infectivity of Cloned Tandem Dimer DNAs of Bean Golden Mosaic Virus

Phaseolus vulgaris ‘Top Crop’ plants inoculated with a mixture of cloned tandem (head to tail) dimers of each component of bean golden mosaic virus (BGMV) developed yellow mosaic symptoms identical to those induced by inoculation with BGMV particles or BGMV ssDNA. Progeny virus particles isolated from plants infected with such cloned DNAs resembled BGMV particles by electron microscopy, reacted with anti-BGMV serum and contained circular unit-length ssDNA. Southern blot analysis of DNA extracted from plants infected with cloned DNA dimers detected virus-specific ssDNA and dsDNA species similar to those found in cells infected following inoculation with BGMV particles.