Havana tomato virus, a new bipartite geminivirus infecting tomatoes in Cuba

Abstract

The cloning and nucleotide sequence of a new bipartite geminivirus found in Cuba is described. DNA A (2620 nt) and DNA B (2586 nt) presented a genomic structure resembling that of other geminiviruses transmitted by Bemisia tabaci. Both components had a common region of 168 nt with a 95% identity. Typical elements involved in replication and transcription were found in this region, though group-characteristic arrangement of iterons was not conserved in this virus. Sequence was compared with geminivirus sequences deposited in the GenBank. Interestingly, when total DNAs or individual ORFs and deduced amino acid sequences were compared, the highest scores were for different viruses. It showed to be most closely related to tomato mottle virus (81.9% and 65.5% similarity with DNAs A and B, respectively) and a member of the abutilon mosaic cluster of New World Begomoviruses. When clones A and B were co-agroinoculated they resulted highly infectious and induced symptoms in Nicotiana benthamiana plants. The A component alone was infectious but induced only mild symptoms, while the B component was not infectious. The presence of viral DNA in N. benthamiana plants was confirmed by dot-blot hybridization using specific probes. These data show that the cuban isolate is a new geminivirus for which the name of Havana tomato virus is proposed.

First report of the identification of Moroccan watermelon mosaic virus in papaya in Democratic Republic of Congo

“…Two small partial sequences from Jamaica (AF035224 and U82829) also aligned with more than 90% identity. ToMHV was first identified and sequenced in Cuba and found to be a distinct begomovirus (Martinez Zubiaur et al ., 1998 (Rojas et al ., 2000;Ala-Poikela et al ., 2005). However, these surveys failed to detect ToMHV.…”

Four Spanish Isolates of Pear Decline Phytoplasma are Related to Other European Phytoplasmas of the Apple Proliferation Group *

“…The 15 sequences showing the highest homology were used for comparisons. Multiple alignment of sequences, and phylogenetic analysis was performed as described (MartõÂ nez-Zubiaur et al, 1998).…”

Molecular characterization and experimental host range of an isolate of Wissadula golden mosaic St. Thomas virus

“…The close proximity and high sequence identities between these five viruses (80-84%) suggest that their DNA-A components have a common ancestry. Progress in the characterization of begomoviruses from Cuba and Jamaica continues to develop a picture of close evolutionary relatedness between begomovirus species present in these two islands with Tomato mosaic Havana virus, Macroptilium yellow mosaic Cuba virus, and Tobacco leaf curl Cuba virus being examples thus far[18,[27][28][29][30][31]. It is likely that begomoviruses spread between the two islands, thereby contributing to disease outbreaks as well as to changes in diversification patterns.The exchange of genome components between different bipartite begomoviruses enables the formation of new infectious units, which may show distinct phenotypic properties[32].Since WGMSTV-[JM:Alb:05], CdTVTo[MX:Sin:IC:83], SiYMYuV-[MX:Yuc:05], and ToLCSinV-[NI:SL] exhibit similar putative Rep-binding sequences, it is reasonable to speculate that they may form viable pseudo-recombinants.…”