Identification and Characterization of a Badnavirus Infecting Betel Vine and Indian Long Pepper

Abstract

Badnavirus infecting betel vine (Piper betle L) and Indian long pepper (P. longum L) were detected with primers designed from the open reading frame (ORF III) region of the virus using Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR). The amplicons obtained from these infected hosts were cloned and sequenced. The sequenced region of ORF III contained 597 nucleotides in both the isolates. Sequence analysis with recognized badnaviruses revealed that Badnavirus infecting P. betle and P. longum had highest sequence identity (>89.1% at nucleotide level and >93.4% at amino acid level) with an Indian isolate of Piper yellow mottle virus (PYMoV) infecting black pepper. Based on the sequence identity and phylogenetic relationship studies, it was concluded that Badnavirus infecting P. betle and P. longum in India is a strain of PYMoV. To our knowledge, this is the first report on the identification and characterization of PYMoV infecting P. betle in India and PYMoV infecting P. longum in India and elsewhere.