Partial Characterization and Molecular Cloning of a Closterovirus from Sweet Potato Infected with the Sweet Potato Virus Disease Complex from Nigeria

Flexuous, filamentous, viruslike particles with a modal length of 950 nm were consistently observed in leaf dip preparations of Ipomoea setosa infected with the whitefly-transmitted component of the sweet potato virus disease (SPVD) from Nigeria. Ultrastructural examinations of infected tissue from I. setosa revealed membrane-enclosed vesicles containing fibrillar material in the phloem parenchyma, which are indicative of clos- terovirus infections. These structures were also present in thin sections prepared from SPVD-infected I. setosa tissue (...)