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Eggplant (Solarium melongena L.) is an important vegetable in Nigeria. The fruits and leaves of certain cultivars are eaten fresh or cooked. This crop suffers from many virus diseases which reduce yield (Igwegbe, unpublished results). Ladipo (1976) reported that a mosaic disease of this crop in Nigeria was caused by an unnamed virus which was readily sap- but not aphid-transmissible. In 1978 we isolated a sap and aphid-transmissible virus from eggplants affected with a mosaic disease in Nsukka, Nigeria. Because the disease was wide-spread and viruses which cause mosaic disease of eggplants in Nigeria are unknown, studies were made to identify the eggplant virus. The causal agent was identified as a new strain of pepper veinal mottle virus (PVMV) whose properties are reported here. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]