Department of Disease and Stress Biology, John Innes Centre, Colney Lane, Norwich, NR4 7UH, UK
Accepted: 10 May 2005
The Ipomoea-infecting begomoviruses are an evolutionary
curiosity. Two such viruses have been identified: Sweet potato leaf
curl virus (SPLCV; Lotrakul & Valverde, 1999) and Sweet
potato leaf curl Georgia virus (SPLCGV); originating from the USA
(SPLCV and SPLCGV) and Spain (SPLCV-Ipo; previously known as Ipomoea
yellow vein virus (Banks et al., 1999) but now recognised as
a distinct strain of SPLCV). These viruses are monopartite (no DNA B or
DNA β component has been identified for any of the viruses), have a
genome organisation typical of Old World begomoviruses and are distinct
from all other begomoviruses.
Cuttings of Ipomoea indica (Convolvulaceae) showing yellow
vein symptoms (Fig. 1) were collected in the vicinity of Catania, Sicily
in 1999. A full-length clone of the begomovirus associated with the
disease was produced by PCR-mediated amplification with a pair of
primers abutting at their 5' ends and spanning (for SPLCV-Ipo)
nucleotides 697-758 (virion-sense primer
5'-GGATCCGCTGAACTTTGGCCAGATCTTCACTATG-3', complementary-sense primer
5'-GGATCCTTATTGGGCCTTGTATCACGAATCAACC-3'). These were designed to the
sequence of SPLCV-Ipo (accession number AJ132548) and span a unique BamHI
restriction endonuclease site. The full-length PCR product was cloned
into the T-Easy vector (Promega) and the sequence of a single clone was
determined. This sequence (accession no. AJ586885) is 2830 nucleotides
in length and shows the arrangement of genes typical of the genomes (or
DNA A components) of Old World begomoviruses. The virus is closely
related to other begomoviruses isolated from Ipomoea spp.
including SPLCGV (84.2% nucleotide sequence identity), SPLCV (89.9%) andSPLCV-Ipo (90.9%), with which it clusters in phylogenetic analyses
(Fig. 2). We conclude that the isolate originating from Sicily is a
strain of SPLCV which we provisionally designate SPLCV-[Sicily]. The
occurrence of this begomovirus species in Sicily indicates that its
geographical range extends further across the Mediterranean basin than
previously identified.
References
Banks G, Bedford ID, Markham PG, 1999. A novel geminivirus of Ipomea
indica (Convolvulaceae) from southern Spain. Plant Disease83, 486.
Lotrakul P, Valverde RA, 1999. Cloning of a DNA A-like component of
sweet potato leaf curl virus: nucleotide sequence and phylogenetic
relationships. Molecular Plant Pathology On-Line
http://www.bspp.org.uk/mppol/1999/0206LOTRAKUL.
This report was formally published in Plant Pathology