| Abstract: | A virus, isolated from the nutrient feeding solution of a bell pepper culture in a glasshouse, was characterised as a new serotype of tobacco necrosis necrovirus (TNV) and named TNV-nft. The virus was monopartite and contained a single RNA species and a single coat protein with molecular weights of 1.45± 106 and 2.9 ± 104 daltons, respectively. The particle had an apparent sedimentation coefficient of 110 S and a density of 1.37 g/cm3 in cesium chloride. In decoration tests antiserum prepared against TNV-nft reacted most strongly with the TNV strains Kassanis A and B, but at lower dilutions it also reacted with all other TNV-serotypes available. In Ouchterlony tests spur formation occurred with TNV strains Kassanis A and B, indicating that the TNV-nft strain was serologically distinct. The isolate was not associated with a satellite virus. Cloned cDNA prepared against viral RNA reacted exclusively with the viral RNA band in Northern blots. |
