Table Of ContentThe
Plant Viruses
Volume 2
THE ROD-SHAPED
PLANT VIRUSES
THE VIRUSES
Series Editors
HEINZ FRAENKEL-CONRAT, University of California
Berkeley, California
ROBERT R. WAGNER, University of Virginia School of Medicine
Charlottesville, Virginia
THE VIRUSES: Catalogue, Characterization, and Classification
Heinz Fraenkel-Conrat
THE ADENOVIRUSES
Edited by Harold S. Ginsberg
THE HERPESVIRUSES,
Volumes 1-3 • Edited by Bernard Roizman
Volume 4 • Edited by Bernard Roizman and Carlos Lopez
THE PAPOVAVIRIDAE
Volume 1 • Edited by Norman P. Salzman
THE PARVOVIRUSES
Edited by Kenneth I. Berns
THE PLANT VIRUSES
Volume 1 • Edited by R. I. B. Francki
Volume 2. Edited by M. H. V. Van Regenmortel and Heinz Fraenkel-Conrat
THE REOVIRIDAE
Edited by Wolfgang K. Joklik
THE TOGAVIRIDAE AND FLA VIVIRIDAE
Edited by Sondra Schlesinger and Milton J. Schlesinger
The
Plant Viruses
Volume 2
THE ROD-SHAPED
PLANT VIRUSES
Edited by
M. H. V. VAN REGENMORTEL
Institute of Molecular and Cellular Biology
Strasbourg, France
and
HEINZ FRAENKEL-CONRAT
Department of Moleculo.r Biology and Virus Laboratory
University of California
Berkeley, California
PLENUM PRESS • NEW YORK AND LONDON
Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data
The Plant viruses.
(Viruses)
Contents: v. 2. The rod-shaped plant viruses/edited by M. H. V. Van Regenmortel
and Heinz Fraenkel-Conrat.
Bibliography: v. 2, p.
Includes index.
1. Plant viruses. 2. Tobacco mosaic virus. I. Van Regenmortel, M. H. V. II.
Fraenkel-Conrat, Heinz, 1910- III. Series.
QR402.P57 1986 576'.6483 86-9517
ISBN 978-1-4684-7028-4 ISBN 978-1-4684-7026-0 (eBook)
DOI 10.1007/978-1-4684-7026-0
© 1986 Plenum Press, New York
Softcover reprint of the hardcover 1st edition 1986
A Division of Plenum Publishing Corporation
233 Spring Street, New York, N.Y. 10013
All rights reserved
No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted
in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, microfilming,
recording, or otherwise, without written permission from the Publisher
Contributors
J. G. Atabekov, Department of Virology, Moscow State University, Mos
cow 119899, USSR
A. C. Bloomer, MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology, Cambridge CB2
2QH, England
Alan A. Brunt, Glasshouse Crops Research Institute, Littlehampton,
West Sussex BN17 6LP, England
P. J. G. Butler, MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology, Cambridge CB2
2QH, England
T. W. Carroll, Department of Plant Pathology, Montana State University,
Bozeman, Montana 59717
R. G. Christie, Plant Virus Laboratory, Agronomy Department, Univer
sity of Florida, Gainesville, Florida 32611
V. V. Dolja, Department of Virology, Moscow State University, Moscow
119899, USSR
J. R. Edwardson, Plant Virus Laboratory, Agronomy Department, Uni
versity of Florida, Gainesville, Florida 32611
H. Fraenkel-Conrat, Virus Laboratory and Depaitment of Molecular Bi
ology, University of California, Berkeley, California 94720
Adrian Gibbs, Research School of Biological Sciences, Australian Na
tional University, Canberra, Australian Capital Territory, 2601,
Australia
G. V. Gooding, Jr., Department of Plant Pathology, North Carolina State
University, Raleigh, North Carolina 27695
B. D. Harrison, Scottish Crop Research Institute, Invergowrie, Dundee
DD2 5DA, Scotland
Yoshimi Okada, Department of Biophysics and Biochemistry, Faculty of
Science, University of Tokyo, Hongo Bunkyo-ku, Tokyo, 113, Japan
Peter Palukaitis, Department of Plant Pathology, Cornell University, Ith
aca, New York 14853
D. J. Robinson, Scottish Crop Research Institute, Invergowrie, Dundee
DD2 5DA, Scotland
v
vi CONTRIBUTORS
Satyabrata Sarkar, Institute of Plant Medicine, University of Hohenheim,
7000 Stuttgart 70, West Germany
Eishiro Shikata, Department of Botany, Faculty of Agriculture, Hokkaido
University, Sapporo, Japan
M. H. V. Van Regenmortel, Institut de Biologie Moleculaire et Cellulaire
du CNRS, 67084 Strasbourg Cedex, France
Anupam Varma, Division of Mycology and Plant Pathology, Indian Ag
ricultural Research Institute, New Delhi 110012, India
Carl Wetter, Department of Botany, University of Saarland, D-6600 Saar
briicken, West Germany
Milton Zaitlin, Department of Plant Pathology, Cornell University, Ith
aca, New York 14853
F. W. Zettler, Plant Pathology Department, University of Florida, Gaines
ville, Florida 32611
Preface
This volume of the series The Plant Viruses is devoted to viruses with
rod-shaped particles belonging to the following four groups: the toba
moviruses (named after tobacco mosaic virus), the tobraviruses (after to
bacco rattle), the hordeiviruses (after the latin hordeum in honor of the
type member barley stripe mosaic virus), and the not yet officially rec
ognized furoviruses (fungus-transmitted rod-shaped viruses, Shirako and
Brakke, 1984).
At present these clusters of plant viruses are called groups instead
of genera or families as is customary in other areas of virology. This pe
culiarity of plant viral taxonomy (Matthews, 1982) is due to the fact that
the current Plant Virus Subcommittee of the International Committee
of Taxonomy of Viruses is deeply split on what to call the categories or
ranks used in virus classification.
Some plant virologists believe that the species concept cannot be
applied to viruses because this concept, according to them, necessarily
involves sexual reproduction and genetic isolation (Milne, 1984; Murant,
1985). This belief no doubt stems from the fact that these authors restrict
the use of the term species to biological species. According to them, a
collection of similar viral isolates and strains does constitute an individ
ual virus, i.e., it is a taxonomy entity separate from other individual
viruses. However, instead of calling these elementary units of classifica
tion: different virus species, these authors call them viruses, refusing to
acknowledge the fact that there is a need for a word to signify that one
is not referring to a viral object but to a taxonomic construct (an abstract
concept as opposed to a collection of material objects).
Some of the protagonists of this viewpoint (Milne, 1984) go as far
as to deny that there is a difference between the existence of a concept
and the existence of material objects, and they reject the view that clas
sifications are conceptual constructions. It is not clear why the word
species should be used only in the sense of biological species defined by
gene pools and breeding barriers, and why a phenetic or morphological
vii
viii PREFACE
definition of species, as practiced by numerical taxonomists, should not
prove acceptable for classifying viruses.
The material objects, i.e., the viruses discussed in the present vol
ume, have been grouped according to the divisions embodied in the CMII
AAB descriptions of plant viruses. In the past, most tobamoviruses such
as ribgrass mosaic virus or cucumber virus 4 were considered strains of
tobacco mosaic virus (TMV).
As new CMIIA AB descriptions of tobamoviruses are published and
the corresponding taxonomic entity is given a name, it has become stan
dard practice to consider that these names now stand for individual vi
ruses and not for individual strains of TMV. According to standard tax
onomic parlance, these individual viruses have thus become de facto
species (Matthews, 1985). In addition to the species TMV, six other spe
.;ies of tobamoviruses are discussed at length in the present volume
(Chapters 9-14). Following standard taxonomic categories and terminol
ogy, the tobamovirus group can be considered a genus made up of a ser
ologically homogeneous cluster of related species. Similarly the furo-,
tobra-, and hordeivirus groups can be taken to represent three separate
plant virus genera.
About a third of this volume is devoted to TMV, a deliberate choice
in view of the importance of this virus for the development of virology.
Although the common TMV strain is perhaps the best studied object in
the whole of virology, the reader will discover that the boundaries of our
knowledge concerning this virus are still being extended and that the end
is not yet in sight. The open-ended nature of scientific knowledge is never
more apparent than in the description of a subject that has been very
extensively researched.
M. H. V. Van Regenmortel
H. Fraenkel-Conrat
Strasbourg
Berkeley
REFERENCES
Milne, R. G., 1984, The species problem in plant virology, Microbio1. Sci. 1:113-117.
Matthews, R. E. F., 1982, Classification and nomenclature of viruses, fourth report of the
international committee on taxonomy of viruses, Intervirology 17:1-199.
Matthews, R. E. F., 1985, Viral taxonomy, Microbio1. Sci. 2:74-76.
Murant, A. F., 1985, Taxonomy and nomenclature of viruses, Microbio1. Sci. 2:218-220.
Shirako, Y., and Brakke, M. K., 1984, Two purified RNAs of soil-borne wheat mosaic virus
are needed for infection, f. Gen. Viro1. 65:119-127.
Contents
I. Tobamoviruses
Chapter 1
Tobacco Mosaic Virus: The History of Tobacco Mosaic Virus and
the Evolution of Molecular Biology ............................................... 5
H. Fraenkel-Conrat
Chapter 2
Tobacco Mosaic Virus: Structure and Self-Assembly
r.
A. C. Bloomer and P. G. Butler
I. Introduction .......................................................................... 19
II. Structure ............................................................................... 20
A. Polymorphic Aggregates of Protein .................................. 21
B. Detailed Molecular Structures ......................................... 25
III. Self-Assembly ........................................................................ 34
A. Nucleation ....................................................................... 34
B. Elongation ....................................................................... 40
IV. Conclusions .......................................................................... 51
References ...................................................................................... 52
Chapter 3
Tobacco Mosaic Virus: Mutants and Strains
Satyabrata Sarkar
I. Introduction .......................................................................... 59
II. Isolation of Variants .............................................................. 60
ix
