Abstract
Brazil is one of the major passion fruit producers worldwide. Viral diseases are among the most important constraints for passion fruit production. Here we identify and characterize a new passion fruit infecting-virus belonging to the family Geminiviridae: passion fruit chlorotic mottle virus (PCMoV). PCMoV is a divergent geminivirus unlike previously characterized passion fruit-infecting geminiviruses that belonged to the genus Begomovirus. Among the presently known geminiviruses, it is most closely related to, and shares ~62% genome-wide identity with citrus chlorotic dwarf associated virus (CCDaV) and camelia chlorotic dwarf associated virus (CaCDaV). The 3743 nt PCMoV genome encodes a capsid protein (CP) and replication-associated protein (Rep) that respectively share 56 and 60% amino acid identity with those encoded by CaCDaV. The CPs of PCMoV, CCDaV, and CaCDaV cluster with those of begomovirus whereas their Reps with those of becurtoviruses. Hence, these viruses likely represent a lineage of recombinant begomo-like and becurto-like ancestral viruses. Furthermore, PCMoV, CCDaV, and CaCDaV genomes are ~12–30% larger than monopartite geminiviruses and this is primarily due to the encoded movement protein (MP; 891–921 nt) and this MP is most closely related to that encoded by the DNA-B component of bipartite begomoviruses. Hence, PCMoV, CCDaV, and CaCDaV lineage of viruses may represent molecules in an intermediary step in the evolution of bipartite begomoviruses (~5.3 kb) from monopartite geminiviruses (~2.7–3 kb). An infectious clone of PCMoV systemically infected Nicotiana benthamina, Arabidopsis thaliana, and Passiflora edulis.
Highlights
Passion fruit is an economically important food crop in many tropical and sub-tropical regions of the world
Using a high throughput sequencing approach, a novel geminivirus was identified in a Brazilian passion fruit plant
The most intriguing characteristic of the passion fruit chlorotic mottle virus (PCMoV), chlorotic dwarf associated virus (CCDaV), and camelia chlorotic dwarf associated virus (CaCDaV) sequences is that they are between 12% and 30% larger than the genomes of other known monopartite geminiviruses
Summary
Passion fruit is an economically important food crop in many tropical and sub-tropical regions of the world. Viruses infecting passion fruit in other parts of the world generally have single-stranded RNA genomes and belong to the families Betaflexiviridae (genus: Carlavirus), Bromoviridae (genus: Cucumovirus), Potyviridae (genus: Potyvirus), and Virgaviridae (genus: Tobamovirus). Passion fruit woodiness disease (PWD) is the most economically relevant disease of passion fruit and is caused by viruses classified in one of three potyvirus species, Passion fruit woodiness virus [1], East Asian passiflora virus [2], and Cowpea aphid-borne mosaic virus [3]. In Brazil, PWD is primarily attributed to cowpea aphid-borne mosaic virus (CABMV) which is widespread and is, to date, the only potyvirus to be identified associated with passion fruit in the country [3,4]. The only known passion fruit infecting viruses that have single-stranded DNA (ssDNA) genomes belong to the genus
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