Ultrastructural study of Pirhemocyton virus in lizard erythrocytes

Abstract

Ultrastructural study of Pirhemocyton infection in the lizard Agama impalearis, and the geckoes Tarentola mauritanica, Ptyodactylus hasselquistii, Gehyra australis and Heteronotia binoei confirmed is viral nature. Despite the apparent structural similarity, being all icosahedral iridovirus-like, virions from the diverse saurian hosts differed in size, nucleoid morphology and cytopathic effects on the erythocytes of their respective hosts. Virions from gecko infections were altogether larger than those found in A. impalearis. In the latter there was also no vacuole formation. The gecko infections are very different from one another in the pattern of their cytoplasmic membranes and the nature of their vacuoles. In P. hasselquistii virions became associated with the vacuole binding membrane. In the other geckoes the vacuole was an unbound inclusion of osmiophilic substance, very different from that found in the vacuole of P. hasselquistii.