Interaction between long and short particles of tobacco rattle virus

<p/>Tobacco rattle virus is a rod-shaped multiparticle virus.<p/>Short particles alone are not infectious, long ones are but give rise to the formation of incomplete virus. Mixtures of long and short particles induce the formation of complete virus. The interaction between long and short particles is not strain-specific: if long and short particles of different strains are inoculated together complete virus is also formed. These new strains have properties of both parent strains.<p/>The interaction between heterologous long and short particles explains why there are so many different tobacco rattle virus isolates and why no correlation can be found between classifications based on different characteristics.