Citation: Robertson, N.L., French, R.C. 2004. Foxtail mosaic virus. Viruses of Poaceae.
Foxtail mosaic virus (FoMV) was first reported in Setaria italica and S. viridis in the U.S.A (Kansas) in 1967, and later in 1993, a new strain was detected in sorghum and Bromus tectorum. Its agronomical importance is not known, even though the experimental host range includes the following genera: Triticum, Hordeum, Avena, Nicotiana, and Chenopodium. FoMV is easily moved by mechanical transmission but has no known vector in nature. It is serologically related to Narcissus mosaic and Viola mottle Potexviruses. Virions are well characterized having flexuous rod-shaped particles c. 12 nm in diameter and c. 500 nm long. The monopartite, positive-sense single stranded RNA genome of 6151 nt is sequenced with the following five major ORFs: ORF1 (152 kDa) encodes a protein with the RNA-dependent RNA polymerase, followed by methyltransferase and helicase motifs; ORFs 2 (26 kDa), 3 (11.3 kDa), and 4 (5.8 kDa) encode the triple gene block of movement proteins; ORF 5 encodes the coat protein of 25 kDa.