Articles
VIRUSES INFECTING BULBOUS IRIS: A CLARIFICATION OF NOMENCLATURE
Each virus has been called by a variety of names, and to complicate matters, the same name has been used to describe more than one virus.
The Sixth International Symposium on Virus Diseases of Ornamental Plants afforded us the opportunity to discuss the viruses of bulbous iris and to propose a clarification of nomenclature.
There are four aphid-transmitted filamentous viruses that commonly occur in bulbous iris crops, and reports of occasional occurrence of several other viruses.
The four viruses of major importance can be distinguished by host range, by serology, by gel electrophoresis of virus-associated polypeptides (Alper et al, 1984), and to some extent by particle morphology and symptom production in bulbous iris.
Three are potyviruses, each with flexuous particles of c 750 um, for which we propose that the most appropriate names, through priority of usage, are iris mild mosaic virus (IMMV), iris severe mosaic virus (ISMV) and bean yellow mosaic virus (BYMV). The fourth is a carlavirus, with particles of c 650 nm, and for reasons of priority, of common usage, and because a CMI-AAB Description (#170, Brunt, 1976) of narcissus latent virus (NLV) has been published, the name narcissus latent virus is preferred over the synonym iris mild yellow mosaic virus used by Asjes (1979).