THE MULTIPLICATION OF INSECT VIRUSES AS ORGANISMS

Abstract

Electron micrographs of purified preparations of four different insect viruses indicate the presence of morphologically different forms, which are probably stages of multiplication. The virus first appears as a minute spherical body. This body increases in size and the virus appears as an elongated, curved body, surrounded by a membrane. Later the virus particle straightens out, ruptures the membrane, and appears as a rod-shaped particle characteristic of insect viruses. One may assume that the rod-shaped virus particle contains several smaller subunits each of which develops into a rod. The complicated nature of multiplication indicates that insect viruses are organisms with a relatively simple morphological structure of the mature rod.