Presence of Viral dsRNA molecules in the Spanish population of Gremmeniella abietina

Abstract

Gremmeniella abietina var. abietina has commonly been pointed out as a species complex, which includes different races and biotypes. Among them, the Spanish population seems to be a unique population derived from type A. Furthermore, G. abietina is known to harbour infections and co-infections of putative mycoviruses belonging to different families. In particular, G. abietinatype A harbours putative members of families Totiviridae and Partitiviridae but also Narnaviridae, with members of genus Mitovirus. In case of G. abietina type B, a novel putative virus with endornavirus affinities has also been identified. Different types of G. abietina seem to host a divergent virus community. So, ninety-one isolates of the Spanish G. abietina were analyzed to check out the presence of viral dsRNA molecules. Thus, the 89% of Spanish isolates presented at least one dsRNA molecule, which is a significant frequency. Overall, eight dsRNA banding patterns were detected, suggesting the occurrence of putative members of different virus genera as Partitivirus, Mitovirus and Totivirus. This is the first approach to the study of fungal mycoviruses in the Spanish population of G. abietina. Key words: Gremmeniella, mycovirus, host, dsRNA, taxonomy.