The relationship of certain tymoviruses assessed from the amino acid composition of their coat proteins.

The amino acid composition of the coat proteins of the following viruses is reported: Andean potato latent, clitoria yellow vein, desmodium yellow mottle, dulcamara mottle, eggplant mosaic, okra mosaic, ononis yellow mosaic, scrophularia mottle, and, as controls, cocksfoot mild mosaic and cocksfoot mottle viruses. These data, together with some already published, were used to compute classifications of the tymoviruses. These classifications show a general similarity to Koenig's serological classification of the tymoviruses, but the correlation is poor, unlike similar comparisons of tobamovirus classifications. Several possible reasons for the poor correlation have been examined and excluded, and its implications are discussed.