Complete Nucleotide Sequence of Watermelon Chlorotic Stunt Virus Originating from Oman

Abstract

Watermelon chlorotic stunt virus (WmCSV) is a bipartite begomovirus (genus Begomovirus , family Geminiviridae ) that causes economic losses to cucurbits, particularly watermelon, across the Middle East and North Africa. Recently squash ( Cucurbita moschata ) grown in an experimental field in Oman was found to display symptoms such as leaf curling, yellowing and stunting, typical of a begomovirus infection. Sequence analysis of the virus isolated from squash showed 97.6–99.9% nucleotide sequence identity to previously described WmCSV isolates for the DNA A component and 93–98% identity for the DNA B component. Agrobacterium -mediated inoculation to Nicotiana benthamiana resulted in the development of symptoms fifteen days post inoculation. This is the first bipartite begomovirus identified in Oman. Overall the Oman isolate showed the highest levels of sequence identity to a WmCSV isolate originating from Iran, which was confirmed by phylogenetic analysis. This suggests that WmCSV present in Oman has been introduced from Iran. The significance of this finding is discussed.

Genetic diversity and distribution of a distinct strain of Chili leaf curl virus and associated betasatellite infecting tomato and pepper in Oman

“…With the possible exception of watermelon chlorotic stunt virus (Khan et al, 2012a,b), a bipartite begomovirus, which is endemic across the Middle East and North Africa, all the begomoviruses reported so far in Oman have their origin on either the Indian subcontinent, the Middle East/Mediterranean or Africa (Khan et al, 2012a(Khan et al, ,b, 2013a. ToLCOMV is only known in Oman and is believed to have emerged through recombination between two begomoviruses introduced into Oman ( Idris et al, 2011).…”

Analysis of watermelon chlorotic stunt virus and tomato leaf curl Palampur virus mixed and pseudo-recombination infections

“…All WmCSV sequences (GenBank and sequences recovered in this study) show relatively low diversity, i.e., 3.3 and 6.2 % for DNA-A and DNA-B, respectively. The Iranian WmSCV sequences cluster with those from Oman and Saudi Arabia, whereas those from Israel, Jordan, Lebanon, Palestine, and West Bank [1,25,26,28] cluster together, revealing some geographical phylogenetic clustering ( Fig. 1).…”

Occurrence of a new recombinant begomovirus species infecting tomato in theAl‐Batinah region ofOman

“…PCR was carried out in a Veriti 96W thermal cycler (Life Technologies Corp.) as described by Khan et al . (). The possible presence of a begomovirus DNA‐B component was assessed by PCR using diagnostic primers prBV1855 and prBC656 (Idris & Brown, ).…”

“…PCR positive samples were subjected to rolling circle amplification (RCA) to amplify circular DNA using the Illustra TempliPhi 100 Amplification kit (GE Healthcare Bio‐Sciences) as described previously (Khan et al ., ). The resulting high molecular weight linear DNA was digested with restriction endonucleases to obtain DNA fragments of c .…”