First report of begomoviruses infectingCucumis sativusL. in North America and identification of a proposed new begomovirus species

Abstract

<jats:sec> <jats:title>Background</jats:title> <jats:p>Members of the <jats:italic>Begomovirus</jats:italic> genus are phytopathogens that infect dicotyledonous plants, producing economic losses in tropical and subtropical regions. To date, only seven species of begomoviruses (BGVs) infecting cucumber have been described. Most cucumber infections were reported in South Asia. In the Americas, begomoviral infections affecting cucumber are scarce; just one report of begomovirus has been described in South America. The presence of whitefly and typical symptoms of viral infections observed in a cucumber field in Colima, Mexico, suggested that plants in this field were affected by BGVs.</jats:p> </jats:sec> <jats:sec> <jats:title>Methods</jats:title> <jats:p>To identify the BGVs infecting cucumber, we performed a high-throughput sequencing and compared the assembled contigs against the GenBank nucleic acid sequence database. To confirm the presence of viruses in cucumber samples, we performed a PCR detection using specific oligonucleotides. We cloned and sequenced by Sanger method the complete genome of a potential new begomovirus. Begomovirus species demarcation was performed according to the International Committee on Taxonomy of Viruses. The evolutionary relationship of the new virus was inferred using phylogenetic and recombination analyses.</jats:p> </jats:sec> <jats:sec> <jats:title>Results</jats:title> <jats:p>We identified five species of begomovirus infecting plants in a field. None of these have been previously reported infecting cucumber. One of the five species of viruses here reported is a new begomovirus species. Cucumber chlorotic leaf virus, the new species, is a bipartite begomovirus that has distinctive features of viruses belonging to the squash leaf curl virus clade.</jats:p> </jats:sec> <jats:sec> <jats:title>Conclusions</jats:title> <jats:p>The findings here described represent the first report of begomoviral infection affecting cucumber plants in North America. Previous to this report, only seven begomovirus species have been reported in the world, here we found five species infecting cucumber plants in a small sample suggesting that cucumber is vulnerable to BGVs. One of these viruses is a new species of begomovirus which is the first begomovirus originally isolated from the cucumber. The findings of this report could help to develop strategies to fight the begomoviral infections that affect cucumber crops.</jats:p> </jats:sec>

Sida chlorotic leaf virus: a new recombinant begomovirus found in non-cultivated plants and Cucumis sativus L

“…Therefore, plants from the genera Sida and Malvastrum pose a risk to agriculture as they can act as incubators for new BGVs species due to the frequent coexistence of diverse viruses within the same host ( Jovel et al, 2004 ). Additionally, some BGVs species identified from sida and malvastrum weeds can migrate to commercial crops such as soybean ( Fernandes et al, 2009 ), bean ( Durham et al, 2010 ), tomato ( Rocha et al, 2013 ), cucumber ( Sanchez-Chavez et al, 2020 ).…”

“…Despite its small size (only 0.3% or 5,627 km 2 of México), it has vast biodiversity with varied physiography and climatology that subserves the existence of multiple ecosystems harboring a high number of living beings ( Cruz-Angón & Perdomo-Velázquez, 2016 ). In this state, 22% of the begomoviral species identified in México have been isolated ( Morales et al, 2005 ; Rodríguez-Negrete et al, 2019 ; Sanchez-Chavez et al, 2020 ).…”

Role of Diversity and Recombination in the Emergence of Chilli Leaf Curl Virus

“…The genus Begomovirus comprises more than 400 speciesand is the largest genus in the family Geminiviridae which are transmitted by whiteflies ( Bemisia tabaci) [ 9 , 10 ]. Based on pair-wise sequence identity, host range, genome-organization and insect-vector relationship, the family Geminiviridae has been divided into nine genera: Becurtovirus , Begomovirus , Capulavirus , Curtovirus , Eragrovirus , Grablovirus , Mastrevirus , Topocuvirus and Turncurtovirus [ 9 , 11 , 12 ].…”

“…Four proteins are encoded by the complementary sense strand: replication associated protein (Rep/AC1), transcription activator protein (TrAP/AC2), replication enhancer protein (REn/AC3) and AC4 while virions sense strand encodes for coat protein (CP/AV1) and pre-coat protein (pre-CP/AV2), in some begomoviruses species AC5/C5 protein were also observed [ 6 , 14 ]. DNA-B is involved in the systemic (cell to cell) and local (nucleus to cytoplasm) movements of begomovirus and involved proteins aremovement protein (MP) and nuclear shuttle protein (NSP) respectively [ 10 ]. The alphasatellites and betasatellites are predominantly associated with monopartite begomoviruses [ 15 , 16 ] and a few cases have been reported for deltasatellites [ 17 ].…”

Molecular characterization of viruses associated to leaf curl disease complex on zucchini squash in Iraq reveals Deng primer set could distinguish between New and Old World Begomoviruses

“…They are transmitted in a persistent manner by the whitefly Bemesia tabaci, the only known vector. At least 21 begomoviruses were found to infect cucurbits worldwide causing serious diseases including leaf curl diseases (Kurowski et al 2015, Fortes et al 2016, Pandey & Verma 2017, ICTV 2020, Sanchez-Chavez et al 2020. In Iraq, begomoviruses have been found to cause a significant damage to vegetable crops (Al-Ani et al 2011a, b, Al-Kuwaiti 2017.…”