Some hosts and properties of bulbous iris mosaic virus

Iris mosaic virus (IMV) was the only virus isolated from forty-six bulbous iris plants of twenty-two cultivars tested; it was common also in Iris danfordiae and I. reticulata but was not detected in any of fifty-two rhizomatous iris plants with mosaic symptoms. IMV was transmitted to healthy irises with difficulty by mechanical inoculation but was transmitted efficiently by Myzus persicae. IMV infected eight of forty-six plant species inoculated mechanically with partially purified virus preparations. Characteristic local lesions without subsequent systemic infection were produced in Amaranthus caudatus, six Chenopodium spp., and Tetragonia expansa; of these, C. quinoa and T. expansa were the best indicator and assay hosts. The virus was moderately stable in vitro and, unlike some similar filamentous viruses, was best purified by differentially centrifuging infective sap clarified with n-butanol. Partially purified preparations from several hosts were infective, produced one specific light-scattering zone after centrifuga-tion in sucrose density-gradient columns, were antigenic and contained particles of 760 mμ model length. IMV was not serologically related to any of nine similar aphid-transmitted, filamentous viruses.