Soon after its introduction to Europe prior to 1570, potato crops started to suffer “degeneration” or “running off”. This was attributed to physiological changes in the cultivars due to continuous vegetative propagation (Salaman, 1970). It was not until the XIXth century that the true cause of degeneration was found to be due to diseases, especially those caused by viruses. Thus, for successful...

An aphid-transmissible field isolate of potato virus Y, strain MM, was purified from a pepper host and cloned. All but 18 terminal nucleotides of the 9.7 kb genome are apparently contained in two overlapping cDNA clones. The library of cDNA clones is likely to be representative of the viral RNA population present in infected plants because restriction endonuclease maps derived from cloned and u...

Sweet potato (Ipomoea batatas) and related Ipomoea species are frequently infected by monopartite begomoviruses (genus Begomovirus, family Geminiviridae), known as sweepoviruses. Unlike other geminiviruses, the genomes of sweepoviruses have been recalcitrant to rendering infectious clones to date. Thus, Koch's postulates have not been fullfilled for any of the viruses in this group. Three novel...

The capsid protein (CP) of potyviruses is required for various steps during plant infection, such as virion assembly, cell-to-cell movement, and long-distance transport. This suggests a series of compatible interactions with putative host factors which, however, are largely unknown. By using the yeast two-hybrid system the CP from Potato virus Y (PVY) was found to interact with a novel subset o...

Viruses infecting wild flora may have a significant negative impact on nearby crops, and vice-versa. Only limited information is available on wild species able to host economically important viruses that infect sweetpotatoes (Ipomoea batatas). In this study, Sweet potato chlorotic fleck virus (SPCFV; Carlavirus, Betaflexiviridae) and Sweet potato chlorotic stunt virus (SPCSV; Crinivirus, Closte...