The minor coat protein of beet yellows closterovirus encapsidates the 5′ terminus of RNA in virions

Filamentous particles of beet yellows closterovirus (BYV) are built of two related capsid proteins, of which the minor species, p24, forms a 75 nm tail at one end of the virion. In the present work, we used polyclonal antibodies against p24 for isolating the 'tailed' virion segments from sonicated BYV particle preparations. The [gamma-P-32]ATP-labelled RNA obtained from the antibody-selected particle segments consistently showed stronger hybridization with the 5'-terminal BYV cDNA clones than with the 3'-terminal cDNA clones. These data clearly indicate that it is the 5'-terminal portion of the closterovirus RNA genome that is encapsidated by p24.