Electro-extraction of viruses from infected plant tissue

An apparatus is described which was used for rapid extraction of viruses from frozen and thawed infected plant tissues. The novel principle is the establishment of a potential gradient of 15 to 20 volts/cm at approximately 90 degrees across the leaves of the infected plant while the leaves are surrounded by buffer of low molarity and of the appropriate hydrogen ion concentration. To keep the leaves in the correct orientation they were placed as single layers between coarse rigid plastic gauze. The method, termed electro-extraction, was used as the initial step in the purification of turnip yellow mosaic, tobacco mosaic and maize streak viruses. An electron micrograph of the purified maize streak virus is presented.