seeds of the castor bean plant ricinuscommunis l (cb) contain ricin toxin (rt), one of the most poisonous naturally-occurring substances known. ricin toxin, a water-soluble glycoprotein that does not partition into the oil extract, is a ribosome-inactivating toxin composed of two chains, labeled a and b. severity of the toxicity varies depending on the route of exposure to the toxin. inhalation...

Grapevine leafroll disease (GLD) is the most important disease of Grapevines in South Africa. Grapevine leafroll-associated virus type 3 (GLRaV-3) has a close association with the disease and is prevalent in South African vineyards. GLD can be controlled using a combination of virus-free planting material, systemic insecticides to control vector populations and removal of infected vines by rogu...

BACKGROUND The control of dengue depends solely on the control of the insect vector and efficient diagnosis of human cases as no vaccines or specific treatments are currently available. Existing diagnostic methods for suspected clinical cases are complicated by the short duration of viraemia and by serological cross-reactivity with epitopes from other flaviviruses. OBJECTIVES To evaluate PCR-...

KAMENOVA, I., 2016. Non-transmission of plum pox virus through seeds of myrobalan and apricot. Bulg. J. Agric. Sci., 22: 267–271 Seeds from wild-grown myrobalan (Prunus cerasifera Ehrh.) infected with PPV-D strain and from apricot (P. armeniaca) infected with PPV-Rec strain were investigated for their potential role in virus transmission. The presence of PPV was checked in fully ripe seeds, gem...

ELISA in situ can be used to titrate hepatitis A virus (HAV) particles and real-time polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) has been shown to be a fast method to quantify the HAV genome. Precise quantification of viral concentration is necessary to distinguish between infectious and non-infectious particles. The purpose of this study was to compare cell culture and RT-PCR quantification results and...