The time seems ripe for a critical compendium of that segment of the biological universe we call viruses. Virology, as a science, having passed only recently through its descriptive phase of naming and num bering, has probably reached that stage at which relatively few new-truly new-viruses will be discovered. Triggered by the intellectual probes and techniques of molecular biology, genetics, bio chemical cytology, and high resolution microscopy and spec troscopy, the field has experienced a genuine information explosion. Few serious attempts have been made to chronicle these events. This comprehensive series, which will comprise some 6000 pages in a total of about 18 volumes, represents a commitment by a large group of active investigators to analyze, digest, and expostulate on the great mass of data relating to viruses, much of which is now amorphous and disjointed, and scattered throughout a wide literature. In this way, we hope to place the entire field in perspective, and to develop an invalua ble reference and sourcebook for researchers and students at all levels. This series is designed as a continuum that can be entered anywhere, but which also provides a logical progression of developing facts and integrated concepts.

This volume of the series The Plant Viruses is devoted to viruses with rod-shaped particles belonging to the following four groups: the toba moviruses (named after tobacco mosaic virus), the tobraviruses (after to bacco rattle), the hordeiviruses (after the latin hordeum in honor of the type member barley stripe mosaic virus), and the not yet officially rec ognized furoviruses (fungus-transmitted rod-shaped viruses, Shirako and Brakke, 1984). At present these clusters of plant viruses are called groups instead of genera or families as is customary in other areas of virology. This pe culiarity of plant viral taxonomy (Matthews, 1982) is due to the fact that the current Plant Virus Subcommittee of the International Committee of Taxonomy of Viruses is deeply split on what to call the categories or ranks used in virus classification. Some plant virologists believe that the species concept cannot be applied to viruses because this concept, according to them, necessarily involves sexual reproduction and genetic isolation (Milne, 1984; Murant, 1985). This belief no doubt stems from the fact that these authors restrict the use of the term species to biological species. According to them, a collection of similar viral isolates and strains does constitute an individ ual virus, i. e., it is a taxonomy entity separate from other individual viruses."

The time seems ripe for a critical compendium of that segment of the biological universe we call viruses. Virology, as a science, having passed only recently through its descriptive phase of naming and num bering, has probably reached that stage at which relatively few new truly new-viruses will be discovered. Triggered by the intellectual probes and techniques of molecular biology, genetics, biochemical cytology, and high resolution microscopy and spectroscopy, the field has experienced a genuine information explosion. Few serious attempts have been made to chronicle these events. This comprehensive series, which will comprise some 6000 pages in a total of about 18 volumes, represents a commitment by a large group of active investigators to analyze, digest, and expostulate on the great mass of data relating to viruses, much of which is now amorphous and disjointed, and scattered throughout a wide literature. In this way, we hope to place the entire field in perspective, and to develop an invalu able reference and sourcebook for researchers and students at all levels. This series i designed as a continuum that can be entered anywhere, but which also provides a logical progression of developing facts and integrated concepts."

The time seems ripe for a critical compendium of that segment of the biological universe we call viruses. Virology, as a science, having passed only recently through its descriptive phase of naming and num bering, has probably reached that stage at which relatively few new-truly new-viruses will be discovered. Triggered by the intellectual probes and techniques of molecular biology, genetics, bio chemical cytology, and high resolution microscopy and spec troscopy, the field has experienced a genuine information explosion. Few serious attempts have been made to chronicle these events. This comprehensive series, which will comprise some 6000 pages in a total of about 18 volumes, represents a commitment by a large group of active investigators to analyze, digest, and expostulate on the great mass of data relating to viruses, much of which is now amorphous and disjointed, and scattered throughout a wide literature. In this way, we hope to place the entire field in perspective, and to develop an invalua ble reference and sourcebook for researchers and students at all levels. This series is designed as a continuum that can be entered anywhere, but which also provides a logical progression of developing facts and integrated concepts."

The time seems ripe for a critical compendium of that segment of the biological universe we call viruses. Virology, as a science, having passed only recently through its descriptive phase of naming and num bering, has probably reached that stage at which relatively few new truly new-viruses will be discovered. Triggered by the intellectual probes and techniques of molecular biology, genetics, biochemical cytology, and high resolution microscopy and spectroscopy, the field has experienced a genuine information explosion. Few serious attempts have been made to chronicle these events. This comprehensive series, which will comprise some 6000 pages in a total of about 22 volumes, represents a commitment by a large group of active investigators to analyze, digest, and expostulate on the great mass of data relating to viruses, much of which is now amorphous and disjointed, and scattered throughout a wide literature. In this way, we hope to place the entire field in perspective, and to develop an invalu able reference and sourcebook for researchers and students at all levels. This series is designed as a continuum that can be entered anywhere, but which also provides a logical progression of developing facts and integrated concepts."

The time seems ripe for a critical compendium of that segment of the biological universe we call viruses. Virology, as a science, having passed only recently through its descriptive phase of naming and num bering, has probably reached that stage at which relatively few new truly new-viruses will be discovered. Triggered by the intellectual probes and techniques of molecular biology, genetics, biochemical cytology, and high resolution microscopy and spectroscopy, the field has experienced a genuine information explosion. Few serious attempts have been made to chronicle these events. This comprehensive series, which will comprise some 6000 pages in a total of about 18 volumes, represents a commitment by a large group of active investigators to analyze, digest, and expostulate on the great mass of data relating to viruses, much of which is now amorphous and disjointed, and scattered throughout a wide literature. In this way, we hope to place the entire field in perspective, and to develop an invalua ble reference and sourcebook for researchers and students at all levels. This series is designed as a continuum that can be entered anywhere, but which also provides a logical progression of developing facts and integrated concepts.

The time seems ripe for a critical compendium of that segment of the biological universe we call viruses. Virology, as a science, having passed only recently through its descriptive phase of naming and numbering, has probably reached that stage at which relatively few new-truly new-viruses will be discovered. Triggered by the intellectual probes and techniques of molecular biology, genetics, bio chemical cytology, and high resolution microscopy and spectroscopy, the field has experienced a genuine information explosion. Few serious attempts have been made to chronicle these events. This comprehensive series, which will comprise some 6000 pages in a total of 19 volumes, represents a commitment by a large group of active investigators to analyze, digest, and expostulate on the great mass of data relating to viruses, much of which is now amorphous and disjointed, and scattered throughout a wide literature. In this way, we hope to place the entire field in perspective, and to develop an invaluable reference and sourcebook for researchers and students at all levels. This series is designed as a continuum that can be entered any where, but which also provides a logical progression of developing facts and integrated concepts."

During the past three decades the organic chemist has become in- creasingly used to take advantage of more and more complex instrumenta- tion and physical measurements in lieu of laborious, time-consuming and often ambiguous chemical transformations. Mass spectrometry is perhaps the most recent, most complex and most expensive addition to this field. In view of the astonishingly quick acceptance of nuclear magnetic reso- nance by the organic chemist it is, in retrospect, surprising that he has neglected mass spectrometry for such a long time. This can be explained, in part, by the complexity of the instrumentation and some technical shortcomings of the earlier commercially available instruments but, to an even greater extent, it reflects also the prejudices against a technique that was originally mainly used for quantitative gas analysis. The usefulness of mass spectrometry as a qualitative technique in organic chemistry rather than a tool for quantitative analysis was more and more recognized towards the end of the last decade. A rather spectacular development followed during the intervening few years to the point that now any reasonably well equipped modern organic laboratory is supplied with, or at least has access to, one or more mass spectrometers suitable for work on organic compounds. Within the realm of organic chemistry the technique has become much more important, if not indispensable, for the natural products chemist while its application to synthetic problems is much less pro- nounced.

The time seems ripe for a critical compendium of that segment of the biological universe we call viruses. Virology, as a science, having passed only recently through its descriptive phase of naming and num bering, has probably reached that stage at which relatively few new truly new-viruses will be discovered. Triggered by the intellectual probes and techniques of molecular biology, genetics, biochemical cytology, and high resolution microscopy and spectroscopy, the field has experienced a genuine information explosion. Few serious attempts have been made to chronicle these events. This comprehensive series, which will comprise some 6000 pages in a total of about 18 volumes, represents a commitment by a large group of active investigators to analyze, digest, and expostulate on the great mass of data relating to viruses, much of which is now amorphous and disjointed, and scattered throughout a wide literature. In this way, we hope to place the entire field in perspective, and to develop an invalua ble reference and sourcebook for researchers and students at all levels. This series is designed as a continuum that can be entered anywhere, but which also provides a logical progression of developing facts and integrated concepts."

The time seems ripe for a critical compendium of that segment of the biological universe we call viruses. Virology, as a science, having passed only recently through its descriptive phase of naming and num bering, has probably reached that stage at which relatively few new-truly new-viruses will be discovered. Triggered by the intellectual probes and techniques of molecular biology, genetics, bio chemical cytology, and high resolution microscopy and spec troscopy, the field has experienced a genuine information explosion. Few serious attempts have been made to chronicle these events. This comprehensive series, which will comprise some 6000 pages in a total of about 18 volumes, represents a commitment by a large group of active investigators to analyze, digest, and expostulate on the great mass of data relating to viruses, much of which is now amorphous and disjointed, and scattered throughout a wide literature. In this way, we hope to place the entire field in perspective, and to develop an invalua ble reference and sourcebook for researchers and students at all levels. This series is designed as a continuum that can be entered anywhere, but which also provides a logical progression of developing facts and integrated concepts."

During the past two decades, virus taxonomy has advanced to the point where most viruses can be classified as belonging to families, genera, or groups of related viruses. Virus classification is primarily based on chem ical and physical similarities, such as the size and shape of the virion, the nature of the genomic nucleic acid, the number and function of com ponent proteins, the presence of lipids and of additional structural fea tures, such as envelopes, and serological interrelationships. The families, genera, or groups of viruses that have been defined on the basis of such criteria by the International Committee on Taxonomy of Viruses (ICTV) will be described in some detail in this catalogue and illustrated by elec tron micrographs. In my present attempt to list most if not all well es tablished and studied viruses in alphabetical order, I have largely confined myself to identifying them only in such taxonomic terms, generally without quoting specific data reported for individual viruses. If the latter data do not at times agree closely with those given for the taxon or group, it is difficult to decide to what extent this is attributable to misclassi fication due to insufficient data and errors in the analytical procedures and descriptions, or to what extent this is an expression of Nature's free dom of choice and abhorrence of restrictive classifications."