Abstract
Mercury-containing preservatives, such as Merthiolate and Cialit (Koenig, 1969), inhibit the formation of precipitin lines in gel-diffusion tests with several animal and plant viruses (Le Bouvier, 1959; Bancroft, 1962; Cowan, 1966; Koenig & Jankulowa, 1968). With foot-and-mouth disease virus this inhibition is due to a partial degradation into subunits (Cowan, 1966) whereas with belladonna mottle virus (BMV) the diffusion of virus is inhibited (Koenig, 1969). In this paper these studies are extended to other isometric plant viruses.
Turnip yellow mosaic (TYMV), eggplant mosaic (EMV),* Andean potato latent (APLV),* viruses and BMV were purified by the method of Paul et al. (1968). A grape-vine isolate of sowbane mosaic virus (SMV) (Bercks & Querfurth, 1969) was purified by the method of Wetter (1960). Rabbits were immunized by two intramuscular injections, given 1 week apart, of virus emulsified in Freund's adjuvant. Complete adjuvant was used for the first injection and incomplete for the second.
* The isolates of EMV and APLV were kindly provided by Dr B. D. Harrison, Invergowrie, Dundee.