Variantes moleculares deAmong grapevine (Vitis spp.) pathogens, viruses stand out, considering that this crop is susceptible to numerous graft-transmissible agents that cause several diseases, reducing plant vigor, yield, productivity and also fruit quality. Grapevine rupestris stem pitting-associated virus (GRSPaV), genus Foveavirus, family Betaflexiviridae, is one of the most common viruses of grapevine and is widely distributed in many grape-growing areas of the world. GRSPaV is not mechanically transmissible and natural vectors are unknown. This virus is involved in the rugose wood complex as the agent of the disorder known as Rupestris stem pitting, and some of its strains have been shown to have a very close association with specific symptoms and disorders (BOUYAHIA et al., 2005). Since the characterization of GRSPaV in 1998, a number of studies have revealed the remarkable genetic variability of this virus, which may reflect the unclear pattern of its biological effects (MENG & GONSALVES, 2007). At least, ten GRSPaV variants have been fully sequenced: GRSPaV (GenBank accession AF026278), RSPaV-1 (AF057136), -SG1 (AY881626), -BS (AY881627), -SY (AY368590), -PN (AY368172), -MG (FR691076), -PG (HE591388), -3138-07 (JX559646) and -GG (JQ922417) (HU et al., 2015). They are divided into four main groups depending on their complete genome sequences, and each group has the reference variant lineage (in bold) defined by NOLASCO et al. (2006) or MENG et al. (2006, respectively as follows: GRSPaV-SY and VS (1 or IV), GRSPaV-SG1, MG and 3138-
ABSTRACT: Grapevine rupestris stem pitting-associated virus (GRSPaV) is one of the most common viruses of grapevine. It is involved in the grafttransmissible disease rupestris stem pitting of the rugose wood complex. The objective of the research was to perform the molecular characterization of the coat protein (CP) gene of sixteen Brazilian GRSPaV isolates aiming to determine the occurrence of molecular variants (strains) of this virus. Nine grapevine samples were evaluated, from which dsRNA was extracted. Nucleotide sequences were generated by Next generation sequencing (NGS). Fifteen complete sequences of the GRSPaV CP gene were obtained and phylogenetically analyzed. Multiple alignments of the sequences showed identities of nucleotides ranging from 82% to 99%, suggesting high variability among the CPs of Brazilian isolates. The study revealed that genetic variability of GRSPaV comprising three molecular variants is also present in