We report the complete nucleotide sequences of lettuce infectious yellows virus (LIYV) RNAs 1 and 2. LIYV RNA 1 is 8118 nucleotides and includes three open reading frames (ORFs). Computer-assisted analysis of LIYV RNA 1 ORFs identified domains for a papain-like protease, methyltransferase (MTR), RNA helicase (HEL), and RNA-dependent RNA polymerase (RdRp). We suggest that the RdRp domain is expressed independently of the other replication-associated domains via a + 1 ribosomal frameshift. Amino acid sequences of the MTR, HEL, and RdRp show highly significant similarity to the homologous sequences from other closteroviruses and lower similarity to the respective proteins of tobamoviruses, tobraviruses, hordeiviruses, bromoviruses, and furoviruses. LIYV RNA 2 is 7193 nucleotides and includes six ORFs. These ORFs include a gene array that is characteristic of the closteroviruses: ORFs encoding a small membrane protein, a homologue of the HSP70 family of chaperone proteins, a protein whose function is unknown, the coat protein, and a diverged duplicate of the coat protein. LIYV is distinguished from the monopartite closteroviruses in the following ways: its genome consists of two RNAs, the positions of the coat protein gene and its diverged duplicate are reversed, and LIYV includes ORFs that are unrelated to ORFs found in other closteroviruses.

Virions of lettuce infectious yellows virus (LIYV ; genus Crinivirus) were purified from LIYV-infected plants and their protein composition was analysed by SDS-PAGE and immunoblotting. Virion preparations contained the major capsid protein (CP), but the minor capsid protein (CPm), p59 and the HSP70 homologue were also identified by immunoblot analysis. Immunogold labelling analysis showed that CP constituted the majority of the LIYV virion capsid, but CPm was also part of the capsid and localized to one end of the virion, similar to the polar morphology seen for viruses in the genus Closterovirus. p59 and the HSP70 homologue were not detected on virions by immunogold labelling, but were always detected in virion preparations by immunoblot analysis. Purified LIYV virions were used for in vitro acquisition analysis with Bemisia tabaci whiteflies and were efficiently transmitted to plants. Infectivity neutralization analyses were done using antisera to the LIYV-encoded CP, CPm, p59 and HSP70 homologue. Only antiserum to the CPm effectively neutralized LIYV transmission by B. tabaci. These data suggest that the LIYV-B. tabaci transmission determinants are associated with purified virions, and that the LIYV virion structural protein CPm is involved in transmission by B. tabaci.

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