Natural Virus Infection of Hedge Bindweed (Calystegia sepium)

Abstract

Virus symptoms were observed on Hedge bindweed (Calystegia sepium) a well known plant in Hungary. In the literature there is no record of virus infection on Hedge bindweed, therefore, investigations were carried out to determine the causal agent. Sap from leaves showing virus-like symptoms was inoculated onto test plants inducing systemic infection on Nicotiana clevelandii, N. benthamiana, local lesions on Chenopodium quinoa and no infection on Datura stramonium and Cucumis sativus. Sap of N. clevelandii was examined by electron microscopy, showed the presence of long flexous particles. The biological and other properties of the virus have also been studied. Properties of particles in sap were as follows: TIP (thermal inactivation point): 78 °C, LIV (longevity in vitro): 26 days and DEP (dilution end point): log 10 minus 5. The size of coat protein is 36 kDa, and the genome consists of 7-8000 nt RNA. Double-stranded cDNA were produced using random hexanucleotide primers, cloned and sequenced. BLAST search of sequence databases revealed nucleotide sequence identity with carlaviruses. Further investigations are needed to decide whether the virus isolated from Hedge bindweed is a new carlavirus or a new strain of an existing carlavirus.