Share your research and experience, ask and answer questions, meet your peers.

Distinct cavemoviruses interact synergistically with sweet potato chlorotic stunt virus (genus Crinivirus) in cultivated sweet potato

Two serologically unrelated sweetpotato viruses causing symptoms of vein clearing in the indicator plant Ipomoea setosa were isolated and their genomes have been sequenced. They are associated with symptomless infections in sweet potato but distinct vein-clearing symptoms and higher virus titres were observed when these viruses co-infected with sweetpotato chlorotic stunt virus (SPCSV), a virus that is distributed worldwide and is a mediator of severe virus diseases in this crop. Molecular characterization and phylogenetic analysis revealed an overall nucleotide identity of 47.6 % and an arrangement of the movement protein and coat protein domains characteristic of members of the genus Cavemovirus, in the family Caulimoviridae. We detected both cavemoviruses in cultivated sweetpotato from East Africa, Central America and the Caribbean islands, but not in samples from South America. One of the viruses characterized showed a similar genome organization as, and formed a phylogenetic sublineage with, tobacco vein clearing virus (TVCV), giving further support to the previously suggested separation of TVCV, and related viral sequences, into a new caulimovirid genus.

 

Given their geographical distribution and previous reports of similar but yet unidentified viruses, sweetpotato cavemoviruses may co-occur with SPCSV more often than previously thought and they could therefore contribute to the extensive yield losses and cultivar decline caused by mixed viral infections in sweetpotato.

Authors: Wilmer Cuellar, Joao De Souza, Israel Barrantes, Segundo Fuentes, Jan Kreuze, Wilmer Cuellar, Joao De Souza, Israel Barrantes, Segundo Fuentes, Jan Kreuze

Contributors: Segundo Fuentes, Segundo Fuentes

Subjects: Seed Systems

Pages: 11

Publisher: Journal of General Virology

Publication Date: 2011

Keywords: cavemoviruses, chlorotic stunt virus, genus Crinivirus, Seed systems, Sweetpotato viruses

HOW TO CITE

Cuellar, Wilmer J., Joao De Souza, Israel Barrantes, Segundo Fuentes, and Jan F. Kreuze. "Distinct cavemoviruses interact synergistically with sweet potato chlorotic stunt virus (genus Crinivirus) in cultivated sweet potato." Journal of General Virology 92, no. 5 (2011): 1233-1243.