Abstract
Maize stripe virus is a pathogen of corn and sorghum in subtropical and tropical regions worldwide. We used high-throughput sequencing to obtain the complete nucleotide sequence for the reference genome of maize stripe virus and to sequence the genomes of ten additional isolates collected from the United States or Papua New Guinea. Genetically, maize stripe virus is most closely related to rice stripe virus. We completed and characterized the RNA1 sequence for maize stripe virus, which revealed a large open reading frame encoding a putative protein with ovarian tumor-like cysteine protease, endonuclease, and RNA-dependent RNA polymerase domains. Phylogenetic and amino acid identity analyses among geographically diverse isolates revealed evidence for reassortment in RNA3 that was correlated with the absence of RNA5. This study yielded a complete and updated genetic description of the tenuivirus maize stripe virus and provided insight into potential mechanisms underpinning its diversity.
Highlights
Rice, maize, and sorghum are staple food crops
Using ORFfinder (NCBI), we identified the coding regions in our MSpV21 isolate and compared its encoded proteins to those previously deposited in National Center for Biotechnology Information (NCBI) (Supplementary Table 3)
Excluding other maize stripe virus (MSpV) sequences, Basic Local Alignment Search Tool (BLAST) nucleotide and protein searches revealed that MSpV21 RNAs 1–4 and encoding protein sequences were most like corresponding sequences from rice stripe virus (RSV)
Summary
Maize, and sorghum are staple food crops. Diverse plant pathogens can threaten global food security and agricultural economies by infecting these vital crop plants and reducing their marketable yield. Infection of young plants often leads to stunting and dramatic “hoja blanca” or white leaf symptoms (Falk and Tsai, 1998). Serological testing of MSpV isolates from the United States (Florida), Venezuela, Peru, Australia, India, Mauritius, Réunion, Thailand, and Taiwan showed that they were all related (Gingery et al, 1979; Greber, 1981; Peterschmitt et al, 1987, 1991; De Doyle et al, 1992; Chen et al, 1993; Sdoodee et al, 1997). MSpV isolates have caused disease on sorghum [Sorghum bicolor (L.) Moench] in India (Peterschmitt et al, 1991; Srinivas et al, 2014) and itchgrass [Rottboellia cochinchinensis (Lour.) Clayton] in the United States (Florida) (Gingery et al, 1981). Corn planthoppers are capable of transmitting MSpV transovarially (Tsai and Zitter, 1982)
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