Abstract
A survey of viruses infecting carnation was made on 116 commercially grown carnation plants (28 cultivars) collected in Japan between 1969 and 1972. Carnation mottle virus (CaMoV), carnation latent virus (CaLV) and carnation vein mottle virus (CaVMV) were found in 66 out of 116, in 51 out of 93 and in 48 out of 105 samples tested, respectively. Carnation etched ring virus and carnation necrotic fleck virus were also found in many of the samples. The survey indicated that these five viruses are the major viral pathogens of carnation in Japan.
CaMoV, CaLV and CaVMV were purified and their particle morphology was examined by electron microscope. Specific antisera to these viruses were obtained using the purified preparations. The host range and the symptomatology were studied by mechanically inoculating these viruses to test plants.
Silene pendula reacted to CaVMV with the formation of distinct necrotic spots in inoculated leaves followed by the appearance of chlorotic and/or necrotic spots in systemically infected leaves. These symptoms were also accompanied by dwarfing. S. pendula was more sensitive to CaVMV than any other indicator plant, and its reaction to this virus was usually sufficiently distinct from the reaction to other carnation viruses.
Cuttings of virus-free clonal plants of cultivar “coral” were inoculated with purified CaMoV. In spite of an active virus multiplication in inoculated tissues, few, if any virus was detected in newly developed leaves for a few months, when the plants were inoculated with low concentration of virus or when they were inoculated at an apical portion. However, the number of plants with low virus concentration was smaller in the artificially inoculated plants than in the plants grown in the field.
