plant viruses

[RYBICKI, ED]

> in fact, both the 1a and 2a genes of brome mosaic virus were 
expressed as
> transgenes, and an RNA3 derivitave as a replication substrate.  I 
was just
> trying to make two points to the curious layperson: first, that it 
is possible
> for a virus to cross kingdoms (beyond the bunyaviridae) and 
second, that it is
> difficult, and is unlikely to occur without a good deal of human 
or evolutionary effort,
> Cheers!

Good answer...but as Terry Hanzlik pointed out, flock house 
nodavirus infects plants (done in your institution) AND insects, and 
can multiply in cells of a number of animal cell lines...so maybe 
some of the effort isn't needed!  And it's not only Bunyaviridae; 
also Reoviridae and Rhabdoviridae, and some other as yet 
unclassified animal-type viruses which multiply in pants 
[Freudian, that - mean PLANTS, of course!] and insects.  And there 
is evidence accumulating to suggest certain Potyviridae multiply in 
plants and fungi, and someone in our institute is convinced a 
certain relatively obscure plant virus is in fact also a 
phage...stay tuned, folks...!
  _____________________________________________________
 | 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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