Levchuk O. Structural components of spot sweetflag virus and its biological properties

Dissertation is devoted to the study of structural components of a new phytopathogenic rhabdovirus - spot sweetflag virus (SSV), which was found by us for the first time on sweetflag plants in Kyiv region. The obtained data widen knowledge about pathogen's general properties, about structure and morphology of its virions. It was established that SSV has a rod-shaped morphology and virion's size reaches 110-130?45 nm. The virus contains single strained DNA with negative polarity and molecular mass of 6 000 nucleotides, and also five structural proteins. The presence of lectins among SSV structural proteins was demonstrated. Qualitative and quantitative composition of SSV lipids and carbohydrates was studied. Virus contains the following monosugers - glucose , galactose, arabinose, rhamnose, mannose, fucose, and fatty acids - palmitic, oleic, stearic, linoleic and cholesterol. The SSV structural protein with 43 kDa molecular weight was proved to posses antigenic resemblance to rhaboviruses dangerous for mammals and human - vesicular stomatitis virus and rabies virus, and immunoglobulins to phytorhabdovirus SSV in vitro are able to neutralize infectious activity of vesicular stomatitis virus. SSV is transmitted by mechanical means, can accumulate in great quantities and affect a wide range of plants from 13 families, among which are agricultural crops of major importance to Ukraine from Solanaceae, Polygonaceae, Fabaceae, and Poaceae families. Therefore it can be considered as a model for studying realization of genetic information in case of phytorhabdoviruses, and for comparative analyses of proteins, lipids and carbohydrates of those rhabdoviruses, that affect both plants and animals.