CHARACTERIZATION OF A SPANISH STRAIN OF PEPPER MILD MOTTLE VIRUS (PMMV-S) AND ITS RELATIONSHIP TO OTHER TOBAMOVIRUSES

Abstract A Spanish strain of pepper mild mottle virus (PMMV‐S) (Alonsoet al. 1989) can be differentiated from the Italian PMMV (Wetteret al. 1984) by the responses of Capsicum spp. with resistance genes to tobamoviruses, by radioimmunoassay and by the electrophoretic mobility of their viral particles. Moreover, the analysis of the electrophoretic mobility of the viral particles in agarose gels and that of the viral coat proteins in polyacrylamide‐urea gels are reliable and rapid techniques for distinguishing PMMV isolates from other members of the tobamovirus group and thus can be used for diagnostic purposes. These results support the proposal of grouping these pepper viruses, including the “pepper strains” of TMV, as a new tobamovirus subgroup (PARES 1985, BETTI et al. 1987, WETTER et al. 1987, ALONSO et al. 1989). Copyright © 1990, Wiley Blackwell. All rights reserved