THE NON-VIRUS PROTEINS ASSOCIATED WITH TOBACCO MOSAIC VIRUS

Abstract

1. Exhaustive fractionation of leaves from tobacco plants systemically infected with TMV has led to the isolation of two non-virus proteins, B3 and B6, and the detection of a third, A4, which do not occur in comparable uninfected plants. 2. Components B3 and B6 have been found consistently in a series of ten extracts from plants grown over an 18 month period in all seasons of the year. It is concluded that these components are as characteristic of the infected plant as TMV itself. 3. As they occur in the initial extracts, the non-virus proteins are of low molecular weight (S20 ca. 3). On treatment, each component tends to form a high molecular weight polymer with an electrophoretic mobility considerably greater than that of the starting material. The high molecular weight derivatives of A4, B3, and B6 have been designated A8, B8, and B7 respectively. There is no evidence that these high molecular weight components occur as such in the infected leaf. 4. The non-virus proteins are free of nucleic acid and are not infectious. They cross-react immunochemically with TMV. 5. Compared with TMV content, the amounts of the non-virus proteins found in infected leaf are relatively small, falling in the range of 10 to 150 micrograms per gm. of tissue.