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A new virus, subterranean clover mottle virus (SCMoV) was found at several locations m Western Australia in Trifolium subterraneum L. (subterranean clover) with severe disease symptoms. Particles of the virus were shown to share many physical properties with members of the sobemovirus group. However, in addition to the single-stranded RNA of Mr about 1.5 ⊗ 106 which is characteristic of sobemoviruses, SCMoV particles also contained circular and linear viroid-like RNAs of two size classes, one about 400 and the other about 300 nucleotides long. At present it is not clear if the two types of viroid-like RNAs are components of the same SCMoV strain or of closely), related strains of the virus which are able to coinfect subterranean clover. SCMoV was shown to be serologically related to lucerne transient streak virus (LTSV). However, the relationship was remote and whereas most high-titred antisera to LTSV reacted with SCMoV particles, antisera to SCMoV failed to recognize those of LTSV. Neither SCMoV nor LTSV are serologically related to velvet tobacco mottle virus (VTMoV) or Solanum nodiflorum mottle virus (SNMV). However, particles of all four viruses have many physical and chemical properties in common, including RNA complements consisting of both virus-like and viroid-like RNAs. Because of their affinities and unique RNA complements, we suggest that SCMoV, LTSV, VTMoV and SNMV may warrant inclusion in a new taxonomic group. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Possible hemispheric functional differences between adolescent partial English-Japanese bilinguals and Japanese monolinguals were examined with a reversed auditory Stroop test. Subjects were requested to press their left/right hand button when they heard the target Japanese word "Otoko (male)/Onna (female)" as fast as possible. In one condition, the word and the speaker's sex weed congruent and in the other condition they were incongruent. The results of the reaction times showed that Stroop effects appeared with both responding hands in the bilingual group. On the other hand, the results of the monolinguals revealed that the Stroop effect was shown only with the left hand and not with the right hand. These results suggest that in nonproficient bilinguals, the right hemisphere may be involved in processing word meaning.