Fundamentals of Plant Pathology
LECTURE 11
GENERAL CHARACTERISTICS AND CLASSIFICATION OF VIRAL PLANT
PATHOGENS
GENERAL CHARACTERISTICS AND STRUCTURE
Characteristics of viruses which separate them from other causes of plant pathogens
are:
They are acellular.
They are sub-microscopic and intracellular.
They lack lipid membrane system and energy production.
They use host machinery for their replication.
Sturcture of virus
Virion is a technical term used for the virus particle. A virion consists of nucleic acid
surrounded by a protein coat.
The nucleic acid is called ‗nucleoid‘ which may be either de-oxyribonucleic acid
(DNA) or ribonucleic acid RNA (mostly RNA in plant viruses), but never both; and
forms the genome.
The protein coat is called ‗capsid‘. It consists of many subunits which are similar and
occasionally dissimilar, and these subunits are called capsomeres.
The combined genome and the capsid are called ‗nucleocapsid‘.
Some viruses possess an envelop around the protein coat which is made of virus
proteins and host cell lipids. These viruses are called ‗enveloped viruses‘.
In many groups of viruses, there is an additional protein layer between the capsid and
the nucleoid. This is called ‗virus core‘.
In addition to the typical nucleoprotein composition, some viruses have
carbohydrates/ lipids / enzymes.
Nucleoid
The nucleoid (nucleic acid component) is located internally within a protein coat.
Only one type of nucleic acid, i.e. either RNA or DNA is found in a virus.
The amount of nucleic acid in a virion varies from 1 to 50 per cent.
Higher percentage of nucleic acid is associated with larger DNA viruses like
bacteriophages; while low content is found in animal viruses.
The nucleic acid is infectious part and contains the genetic information for the
synthesis of proteins and its own replication; and their assembly into the virion.
Most of the plant viruses contain RNA, with exceptions like Cauliflower mosaic
virus.
Capsid
The capsid is a protein coat surrounding the nucleoid and has the following functions:
It protects nucleic acid from unfavourable extracellular environment.
It facilitates nucleic acid entry into the host cells.
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It is antigenic.
As compared to nucleoid, the protein coat shows a complex structure and provides
shape to the virus particles.
It interacts with the vector for specific transmission.
Morphology of Viruses
Viruses are of different shapes and sizes. They may be:
i. Elongated (rigid rods or flexuous threads)
ii. Spherical (isometric or polyhedral)
iii. Cylindrical (bacillus-like rods)
Some elongated viruses are rigid rods about 15 x 300 nm in size, but most appear as
long, thin, flexible threads that are usually 1-10 nm wide and 480-2000 nm in length.
Rhabdoviruses are short bacillus-like cylindrical rods approximately three to five
times as long as they are wide ( 52-75 x 300-380 nm in size).
Most spherical viruses are actually polyhedral, ranging in diameter from about 17 nm
(Tobacco necrosis satellite virus) to 60 nm (Wound tumor virus).
Tomato spotted wilt virus is surrounded by a membrane and has a flexible, spherical
shape about 100 nm in diameter.
Many plant viruses have spilt genome consisting of two or more distinct nucleic acid
strands encapsidated in different-sized particles made of the same protein subunits.
For example: Bipartite, Tobacco rattle virus consisting of two rods, a long one (195 x
25 nm) and a shorter one (43 x 25 nm) and Multi-partite Alfalfa mosaic virus,
consisting of four components of different sizes.
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Composition and structure of viral proteins
Viral proteins, like all proteins, consist of amino acids.
The sequence of amino acid within a protein, which is encoded by the sequence of
nucleotides in the genetic material, determines the nature and properties of the
protein.
For example, the protein subunit of tobacco mosaic virus consists of 158 amino acids
in a constant sequence and has a mass of 17,600 daltons.
Composition and structure of viral nucleic acids
Nucleic acid of most plant viruses consists of RNA, but now, a larger number of
viruses have also been shown to contain DNA as its genome.
Both RNA and DNA are long chain-like molecules consisting of hundreds or most of
them thousands of units called nucleotides.
Each nucleotide consists of a ring compound called the base attached to a five-carbon
sugar (ribose in RNA, de-oxyribose in DNA), which in turn is attached to phosphoric
acid.
The sugar of one nucleotide reacts with the phosphate of another nucleotide, which is
repeated many times, thus forming the RNA or DNA strand.
In viral RNA, only one of four bases, adenine, guanine, cytosine and uracil can be
attached to each ribose molecule. The first two, adenine and guanine, are purines and
interact with the pyrimidines, uracil and cytosine.
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