Abstract
‘Meleira’, or ‘sticky disease’, is currently the most damaging papaya disease in the mid‐eastern Brazilian growing regions. Consistent disease transmission via latex injection, presence of similar isometric particles in the laticiferous vessels of diseased plants, and detection of double‐stranded DNA in naturally and experimentally infected papaya trees suggest that a virus is the causal agent. Conclusive evidence for viral aetiology was previously lacking, mostly because every attempt to purify the putative virus from infected papayas had failed. Following the successful purification and partial characterization of the meleira virus, healthy papaya seedlings injected with purified virus particles later developed typical symptoms of the disease. Negatively stained, isometric, full and ‘empty’ purified virus particles measured 42 and 38 nm, respectively. The viral genome was a single dsRNA molecule of about 12 kbp. Several capsid proteins, ranging in size from 14·4 to 45 kDa, were consistently revealed by PAGE. Papaya meleira virus (PMeV) appears to represent a novel group of viruses, with no known similar counterpart among known plant‐, vertebrate‐, invertebrate‐ or prokaryote‐infecting viruses.
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