Abstract
Ribosomal RNA-depleted total RNAs from a sweet pepper plant (Capsicum annuum, labelled as N65) grown in western Slovakia and showing severe virus-like symptoms (chlorosis, mottling and deformation of leaf lamina) were subjected to high-throughput sequencing (HTS) on an Illumina MiSeq platform. The de novo assembly of ca. 5.5 million reads, followed by mapping to the reference sequences, revealed the coinfection of pepper by several viruses; i.e., cucumber mosaic virus (CMV), watermelon mosaic virus (WMV), pepper cryptic virus 2 (PCV2) and bell pepper endornavirus (BPEV). A complete polyprotein-coding genomic sequence (14.6 kb) of BPEV isolate N65 was determined. A comparison of BPEV-N65 sequences with BPEV genomes available in GenBank showed 86.1% to 98.6% identity at the nucleotide level. The close phylogenetic relationship with isolates from India and China resulted in their distinct grouping compared to the other BPEV isolates. Further analysis has revealed the presence of BPEV in sweet or chili peppers obtained from various sources and locations in Slovakia (plants grown in gardens, greenhouse or retail shop). Additionally, the partial sequencing of two genomic portions from 15 BPEV isolates revealed that the Slovak isolates segregated into two molecular clusters, indicating a genetically distinct population (mean inter-group nucleotide divergence reaching 12.7% and 14.5%, respectively, based on the genomic region targeted). Due to the mix infections of BPEV-positive peppers by potato virus Y (PVY) and/or CMV, the potential role of individual viruses in the observed symptomatology could not be determined. This is the first evidence and characterization of BPEV from the central European region.
Highlights
Pepper (Capsicum sp.) is a vegetable crop of the Solanaceae family which is widely grown in temperate regions either for direct consumption or for the food and pharmaceutical industries.Both sweet and chili peppers are among the top ten most widely cultivated vegetables in the world [1,2].pepper production can be often constrained by infections by viral pathogens, negatively affecting the yield or quality of the production [3]
Bell pepper is not an exception to that, with a few partiti- and endornaviruses reported from the host; e.g., pepper cryptic viruses 1 and 2 (PCVs 1 and 2), bell pepper endornavirus (BPEV), hot pepper endornavirus (HPEV)
Two large contigs (8851 and 5874 bp in size) were initially identified by Blast analyses to match with BPEV sequences in the GenBank
Summary
Pepper (Capsicum sp.) is a vegetable crop of the Solanaceae family which is widely grown in temperate regions either for direct consumption or for the food and pharmaceutical industries.Both sweet and chili peppers are among the top ten most widely cultivated vegetables in the world [1,2].pepper production can be often constrained by infections by viral pathogens, negatively affecting the yield or quality of the production [3]. Pepper (Capsicum sp.) is a vegetable crop of the Solanaceae family which is widely grown in temperate regions either for direct consumption or for the food and pharmaceutical industries. The Endornaviridae family, comprising the genera Alphaendornavirus and Betaendornavirus, includes viruses which have been identified in plants, fungi oomycetes and protists [6,7,8]. Members of these genera were reported from several important crops, such as rice, bean, barley, cucurbits, spinach or pepper [9]. Endornaviruses are characterized by a stable low copy number in their plant host, exhibiting no obvious symptoms or pathological effect on plants (with the exception of Vicia faba endornavirus) and efficient vertical transmission [8,10,11]
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