Division of Biology, Faculty of Science, University of Zagreb
Abstract
Camellia leaf yellow mottle virus, CLYMV (Hiruki 1987) is the name of the agent which causes frequent symptoms of yellow mottle on the leaves of two camellia species, Camellia japonica and C. sasanqua. There are some difficulties in investigating this virus because up to now it has not been possible to transmit it mechanically but only by grafting.
A very important breakthrough was when T. and N. Inouye (1975) found the infective agent of CLYMV in C. japónica. The particles of this virus in C. sasanqua were found by Miličić et al. (1988). The particles were bacilli- form and about 140 X 30 nm large. They had a helical structure.
During our present experiments we found that CLYMV particles had mostly 14 to 15 turns which run along a clearly visible central canal 10 nm wide. Subsequently we studied the aggregates which sometimes contained more than 200 virus particles being only laterally aggregated (Fig. 1). It seems that the impossibility to form true crystals is due to the fact that particle ends are not flat but somewhat irregularly rounded. In studying virus particles we have found that their size ranges from 120 to 170 nm accompanied by a different number of turns. During the research the presence of nucleic acid in virus particles was established. However, it remains unknown as yet whether CLYMV contains RNA or DNA.
Gailhofer etal. (1988) found virus particles in various parts of leaves of C. japónica and C. sasanqua and of the stamen of C. sasanqua. They described the anomalies and the collapse of the stamen, deformities of mitochondria and an electron lucent area in C. japónica.Prije tri godine objavili smo u ovom časopisu rad pod naslovom »Virus infekcijskog šarenila kamelije u Jugoslaviji«. Sada objavljujemo drugi rad o istom virusu. Taj virus još nije uspjelo prenijeti mehaničkim putem nego samo cijepljenjem. U međuvremenu je virus dobio drugi naziv. Danas ga nazivamo »virus žute pjegavosti lista kamelije«. On ima dva domaćina C. japonica L. i C. sasanqua Thunb.
Dok je debljina čestica stalna i iznosi 30 nm, dotle je dužina čestice najčešće 140 do 150 nm, ali ima ih i od 120 do 170 nm.
Virusne čestice su pronađene u oba domaćina. U listovima C. sasanqua nalaze se u epidermi i mezofilu. Zanimljive su anomalije prašnika, mito- honđrija i pojava »electron lucent« područja u plazmi