> From: josh at panda.uchc.edu (Josh Goldstein)
> Subject: tulip break virus
> Sometime back I came across a reference to tulip break virus. It
streaks> hybrid tulips with color. And in 17th or 18th centuary,
wild speculations> broke out in Holland leading to tulipomania and
govt. had to intervene to> restore order.
>> What are these viruses?
> How they cause color breaks?
A good thing to do would be to get hold of the latest "Plant
Virolgy" by REF Matthews (Academic Press). This has (as do many
virology texts) a couple of illustrations culled fro old herbals (as
old as 1656, if I rmember correctly) showing the "colour break"
symptoms. The viruses are a mixed bag, but generally potyviruses (I
think). As to how they cause the symptoms: not an easy question to
answer. I can duck it by saying that the virus replication
intereferes with plastid development, and so with colour
development, in petals.
_____________________________________________________
| Ed Rybicki, PhD | (ed at molbiol.uct.ac.za) |
| Dept Microbiology | University of Cape Town |
| Private Bag, Rondebosch | 7700, South Africa |
| fax: xx27-21-650 4023 | tel: xx27-21-650 3265 |
| URL: http://www.uct.ac.za/microbiology |
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