A New Species of Ampelovirus Detected in Persea lingue (Ruiz & Pav.) Nees ex Kopp, a Common Tree of the Threatened Chilean Sclerophyll Forest

Abstract

Biotic and abiotic stress seriously affects the development of plants, leading to the death of a significant number of plants in natural landscapes. Over the last twelve years, the central zone of Chile has been under an intensive drought, affecting the species inhabiting the Chilean Mediterranean forest, which is classified as a biological hotspot. In this context, our group started a small survey to monitor the presence of intracellular pathogens that may be infecting the plants, increasing the damage caused by the water deprivation. Several plants of one species, Persea lingue, showed symptoms of interveinal yellowing and leaf curling. RNA-seq analyses of one of these samples showed the presence of a long contig with high coverage only in symptomatic plants. Phylogenetic analysis and the molecular features indicated that it was a new species of the Ampelovirus genus. RT-PCR analyses determined the presence of the virus only in symptomatic plants of the same natural preserve.