Viruses

Chinese scientists have been studying extensively various groups of viruses, e. g., plant viruses, animal viruses, insect viruses and bacteriophages. The insect viruses isolated and purified in China comprise 14 percent of the total number in the world. Among the survey of plant pathogenviruses, some new species have been identified, e. g., an insect parcocirus, apple rough skin virus (analysis of molecular data of the virus showed that apple rough skin virus gives a good homology with potato tuber virus). Tobacco leaf curl virus and squash leaf curl virus reported upon by Chinese virologists is both geminivirus’s. Sequence analysis of the virus coatprotein gene showed that there are differences between the squash leaf curl geminivirus reported upon from China and America. So far, except for the medical virus, the total collection of viruses comprises 600 strains in China. Among these, there are 146 animal viruses, 151 plant viruses, 214 insect viruses and 91 bacteriophages.