The Preparation and Use of Tobacco Mosaic Virus Containing Radioactive Phosphorus

Normal and tobacco mosaic-diseased Turkish tobacco plants were grown in sand for a period of several weeks, during which they were fed daily a complete nutrient solution to which had been added disodium phosphate containing radioactive phosphorus. Determinations were made of the distribution of radioactive phosphorus in different fractions such as the wash from the sand and roots, the press cake obtained on pressing the juice from the plants, the protein and protein-free portions of the supernatant liquids obtained on ultracentrifugation of the juices, and the purified tobacco mosaic virus isolated from the diseased plants. Chemical analyses as well as radiographs of the normal and diseased leaves indicated that they contained the same amount of phosphorus. Approximately 30 per cent of the radioactive phosphorus absorbed by the diseased plants was found to be combined with the purified tobacco mosaic virus that was isolated from these plants. Following the inoculation of purified tobacco mosaic virus possessing high radioactivity to normal Turkish tobacco plants, most of the radioactivity was found to be associated with non-virus components of which about 40 per cent was in the inoculated and 60 per cent in the uninoculated portions of the plants. Although a small amount of radioactive virus was isolated from the uninoculated portions of the plants, it was impossible, because of a number of complicating factors which have been discussed, to draw from the results any reliable conclusions regarding the mode of reproduction of tobacco mosaic virus.