Isolation, purification, and properties of tamarillo mosaic virus, a member of the potato virus Y group

Tamarillo ( Cyphomandra betacea Sendt.) in the Auckland, Kerikeri, and Tauranga‐Te Puke areas were commonly found to be infected with a virus causing severe vein‐banding and blister‐mottle foliage symptoms, and blemished fruit. This virus, proposed name tamarillo mosaic virus (TaMV), has a narrow host range, being mechanically transmissible only to several members of the Solanaceae. With acquisition feeding periods of between 2 and 5 min, the aphid Myzus persicae (Sulz.) readily transmitted the virus. The molecular weight of viral coat protein was calculated to be c. 30 000 daltons and could not be distinguished by polyacrylamide‐gel electrophoresis from the molecular weight of coat protein of potato virus Y. Cytoplasmic pinwheel inclusions were readily observed in thin sections of infected Nicotiana clevelandii A. Gray leaf tissue. The mean particle length (745 nm), the ability to induce cytoplasmic pinwheel inclusions, and other properties of TaMV place this virus in the potato virus Y group.