Some Physicochemical and Serological Properties of Konjak Mosaic Virus and Dasheen Mosaic Virus

Abstract

The physicochemical and serological properties of konjak mosaic virus (KMV) and dasheen mosaic virus (DasMV) were studied. The molecular weight (MW) of nucleic acid of each virus was estimated to be 3.21×10⁶ for KMV, and 3.42×10⁶ for DasMV under denaturing conditions. While KMV had a single coat protein with MW of 35.5K, DasMV had two coat proteins with MWs of 32.5K and 40.0K. The 32.5K polypeptide was assumed to be derived from proteolytic degradation of the 40.0K protein, since both the proteins showed almost identical peptide patterns when analyzed by reverse phase high performance chromatography after treatment with Lysyl endopeptidase. ELISA showed that KMV was serologically related to soybean mosaic virus (SoyMV) and watermelon mosaic virus-2 (WMV-2) but unrelated to other six potyviruses including DasMV. Also, SoyMV and WMV-2 reacted with anti-KMV antibody by double immunodiffusion and western blotting analyses.