Tubular structures associated with turnip yellow mosaic virus in vivo.

Plants infected with a necrotic strain of turnip yellow mosaic virus contain tubes averaging about 80 millimicrons in diameter and attaining 3 microns in length. The main constituent of these tubes is a protein that is related chemically and immunologically to the protein of the virus. The tubes are composed of hexagonally packed hexagonal subunits resembling the hexamer protein subunits of the virus particles and are probably helical in construction.