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Title: Characterization of potato spindle tuber viroid-specific nucleic acids in tomato plants

Thesis/Dissertation ·
OSTI ID:6550134

Blot hybridization was used to characterize potato spindle tuber viroid (PSTV)-specific nucleic acids present in extracts of tomato plants; a model for viroid replication based on these experiments is presented. Southern hybridization demonstrated that DNA of both uninfected and PSTV-infected tomato plants are free of detectable regions complementary to the viroid. Although significant hybridization was observed when conventionally prepared viroid (labeled in vitro with /sup 125/I) was used as a probe, fingerprint analysis demonstrated that this was due to the presence of rDNA fragments in the viroid preparation. When highly purified viroid was used, all traces of hybridization due to host contaminants disappeared and no viroid-specific bands could be detected. Under these same conditions, as little as one-quarter copy of a gene 550 base pairs in length could be detected. Northern hybridization was done using fully denatured nucleic acids probed with /sup 125/I-labeled PSTV. To seek evidence of a possible connection between viroid replication and pathogenesis, a set of biological experiments was carried out in which plants were simultaneously inoculated with mixtures of two variants of PSTV.

Research Organization:
Rockefeller Univ., New York (USA)
OSTI ID:
6550134
Resource Relation:
Other Information: Thesis (Ph. D)
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English