FIRST REPORT OF CLERODENDRON YELLOW MOSAIC VIRUS INFECTING CROTON

Abstract

Croton (Codiaeum variegatum; family Euphorbiaceae) is an evergreen shrub grown as a garden hedge in Pakistan. Leaf sam- ples from two croton plants, showing mild leaf curl and yellowing symptoms, and from two symptomless plants were collected in Lahore (Pakistan) during 2012. DNA was extracted from sam- ples by the CTAB method. The presence of a begomovirus was confirmed by amplification of a product of the expected size (ca. 2800 nts) in PCR with abutting primers BGAF/BGAR (Tahir et al., 2010), from symptomatic but not from non-symptomatic leaf samples. The PCR product was cloned and sequenced in its en- tirety with no ambiguity remaining. The complete nucleotide se- quence, determined to be 2760 nts, is available in the databases under accession number HE863667. The sequence showed 99.1% nucleotide sequence identity to Clerodendron yellow mo- saic virus (ClYMV; accession No. EF408037) and thus represents a new variant of ClYMV (Fauquet et al., 2008). Attempts to iden- tify the presence of a second component using primers specific for DNA B BGBF/BGBR (Tahir et al., 2010) and Beta01/02 primers (Briddon et al., 2002) for betasatellites failed to produce an amplification product. Since Croton is a widely grown ever- green plant it may harbor begomoviruses for many years and act as source of inoculum for crops. This is the first report of ClYMV occurring in Pakistan and the first time that this virus has been identified in Croton.