We determined the complete nucleotide sequence of a potyvirus purified from a Japanese yam plant. The genomic RNA of this virus is 9,757 nucleotides (nts) in length, excluding the 3'-terminal poly(A) tail. It contains a single open reading frame (ORF) encoding a polyprotein of 3130 amino acids (aa) with a calculated Mr of 356,793. The genomic organization of this potyvirus is similar to that of other members of the genus Potyvirus and nine potential cleavage sites for the viral proteinase were found by comparison of its sequence with those available for other potyviruses. The nucleotide sequence and genome characteristics show that this isolate is a new potyvirus species. Its polyprotein differs substantially from Yam mosaic virus (YMV) (50% amino acid sequence identity) and fourteen other potyvirus species examined (44-59% identity). Although this potyvirus has been classified as YMV, our results suggest that the potyvirus infectious to the Japanese yam plant in Japan is distinct from YMV. Therefore, we propose that the Japanese yam potyvirus should be designated as Japanese yam mosaic virus (JYMV).

We determined the complete nucleotide sequence of a mild strain of Japanese yam mosaic potyvirus (JYMV-M) and compared it with the published sequence of severe strain of JYMV (JYMV-J1). The genomic RNA of JYMV-M is 9,760 nucleotides (nts) in length, excluding the poly (A) tail, and encodes a polyprotein of 3,132 amino acids. Among nine potential cleavage sites, only the P1 and NIa recognition sites (between 6K1 and CI) had different sequences from those of JYMV-J1. The data confirm the strain status of these two viruses with 91.1% sequence identity for the polyprotein and approximately 94-97% identities for HC, CI, NIa, NIb and CP. The most divergent products P1 and P3 had 62% and 90% sequence identities respectively.

We determined the 3'-termimus 1353 nucleotides (nts) in length excluding the poly (A) tail of yam mild mosaic potyvirus (YMMV) RNA. The sequence starts within a long open reading frame (ORF) 1209 nts and is followed by untranslated region (3'-UTR) of 144 nts. The coat protein (CP) contains 266 amino acids (aa) with molecular ratio (Mr) of approximately 30 kDa. The CP of YMMV differs substantially from yam mosaic virus (YMV), Japanese yam mosaic virus (JYMV) (57 and 61% of amino acid sequence identity) and other potyvirus species. This result suggests that YMMV should be classified as a new yam potyvirus.

An attenuated strain of Japanese yam mosaic virus, selected from the fields and referred to as JYMV-M, caused no symptoms on Japanese yam plants throughout the growing season. The purified virus preparation was highly infective, and the virus was easily transmitted by aphids. An RT-PCR-RFLP assay was used in cross-protection tests to discriminate JYMV-M from other severe strains. Pre-inoculation of yam plants with JYMV-M remarkably protected them from infection with severe strains. JYMV-M infection did not affect either the quality and quantity of yam production.

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