Serological differentiation indices (SDIs) based on serum titrations in agar-gel double diffusion tests were determined for all ten definitive tombusviruses known at presen t, namely artichoke mottled crinkle, carnation Italian ringspot, cymbidium ringspot, eggplant mottled crinkle, Moroccan pepper, pelargonium leaf curl, petunia asteroid mosaic, the BS3 and type strains of tomato bushy stunt, ...

Earlier attempts to express peptides longer than 20 aa on the surface of tobamoviruses such as tobacco mosaic virus have failed. Surprisingly, we found that a functional fragment of protein A (133 aa) can be displayed on the surface of a tobamovirus as a C-terminal fusion to the coat protein via a 15-aa linker. The macromolecular nature of these nanoparticles allowed the design of a simple prot...

The secondary structure of satellite tobacco mosaic virus (STMV) RNA was predicted using computer simulations of RNA folding. The analogies of structural elements in the 3' end untranslated regions (3'-UTR) of tobamoviral RNAs were analysed. In addition to the tRNA-like structure and pseudoknot stalk, which are found in all known RNAs of tobamoviruses and STMV, another region of stable consecut...

Host-encoded factors play an important role in virus multiplication, acting in concert with virus-encoded factors. However, information regarding the host factors involved in this process is limited. Here we report the map-based cloning of an Arabidopsis thaliana gene, TOM1, which is necessary for the efficient multiplication of tobamoviruses, positive-strand RNA viruses infecting a wide variet...

Cucurbit-infecting tobamoviruses known so far belong to six acknowledged or tentative species. Except for cucumber green mottle mosaic virus (CGMMV), which is present worldwide, they are geographically restricted, mostly Asia, and have not been observed in Africa far. A tobamovirus isolate infecting a wild Coccinia grandis plant was collected central Sudan 2012. Its host range appeared be limit...