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Abstract
SUMMARY: Preparations of tobacco mosaic virus (TMV) inactivated by ultraviolet radiation interfered slightly with infection by active tomato bushy stunt (BSV) and Rothamsted tobacco necrosis (RTNV) viruses, and much more so with active TMV. Similarly, inactivated RTNV interfered slightly with infection by TMV and more so with active RTNV. In contrast, inactivated BSV did not affect the numbers of lesions produced by active virus preparations.
The residual infectivity of irradiated preparations of RTNV and BSV was greater when inoculated plants were exposed to light than when they were kept in the dark. This occurs because of some light-sensitive mechanism in the host cells, and exposing the irradiated virus preparations to visible light did not affect their infectivity. Irradiated preparations of TMV had the same residual infectivity whether plants were placed in the light or dark after inoculation.
Although the three viruses have particles of different sizes and shapes, the course of inactivation by ultraviolet with each approximated closely to that of a first-order reaction.
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