%0 Journal Article %A Spieker, Reiner L. %T The molecular structure of Iresine viroid, a new viroid species from Iresine herbstii (‘beefsteak plant’) %D 1996 %J Journal of General Virology, %V 77 %N 10 %P 2631-2635 %@ 1465-2099 %R https://doi.org/10.1099/0022-1317-77-10-2631 %I Microbiology Society, %X A viroid was isolated from Iresine herbstii plants using the bidirectional PAGE method for analysis of small circular RNA molecules. The viroid was transmitted to viroid-free Iresine herbstii plants of the cultivar ‘Aureoreticulata’ by mechanical inoculation. Infected plants did not develop any symptoms. The new viroid species has been named Iresine viroid (IrVd). It is a member of the potato spindle tuber viroid group and consists of 370 nucleotides, 227 G+C, 143 A+U (GC content, 61.4%). The most stable rod-like secondary structure of this viroid has 86 G:C, 34 A:U and 12 G:U base pairs with a minimum free energy of -153.4 kcal/mol (-641.2 kJ/mol). The sequence and the position of the terminal conserved region (TCR) within the rod-like secondary structure of IrVd differ from the other known TCRs. The structure of the left terminal domain of IrVd may reflect the result of an intramolecular RNA recombination event. %U https://www.microbiologyresearch.org/content/journal/jgv/10.1099/0022-1317-77-10-2631