Frequent migration of introduced cucurbit-infecting begomoviruses among Middle Eastern countries

Abstract

BackgroundIn the early 2000s, two cucurbit-infecting begomoviruses were introduced into the eastern Mediterranean basin: the Old World Squash leaf curl virus (SLCV) and the New World Watermelon chlorotic stunt virus (WmCSV). These viruses have been emerging in parallel over the last decade in Egypt, Israel, Jordan, Lebanon and Palestine.MethodsWe explored this unique situation by assessing the diversity and biogeography of the DNA-A component of SLCV and WmCSV in these five countries.ResultsThere was fairly low sequence variation in both begomovirus species (SLCV π = 0.0077; WmCSV π = 0.0066). Both viruses may have been introduced only once into the eastern Mediterranean basin, but once established, these viruses readily moved across country boundaries. SLCV has been introduced at least twice into each of all five countries based on the absence of monophyletic clades. Similarly, WmCSV has been introduced multiple times into Jordan, Israel and Palestine.ConclusionsWe predict that uncontrolled movement of whiteflies among countries in this region will continue to cause SLCV and WmCSV migration, preventing strong genetic differentiation of these viruses among these countries.

Vector-Enabled Metagenomic (VEM) Surveys Using Whiteflies (Aleyrodidae) Reveal Novel Begomovirus Species in the New and OldWorlds

“…SLCV was also identified in whiteflies collected from squash in Israel. The Israel SLCV genome (DNA-A and DNA-B) was 99% identical to the genome of a strain previously identified in Israel and neighboring countries including Jordan, Lebanon, and Palestine [ 56 ]. The SCLV genomes from California and Israel shared 97.8% and 94.8% genome-wide pairwise identity among the DNA-A and DNA-B components, respectively.…”

Molecular Characterization of a Leaf Curl Disease Infecting Zucchini Squash in Iraq

“…It most likely moved to Iraq through the movement of viruliferous whitefly across country boundaries (Lapidot et al, 2014). SLCV could threat cucurbit production in Iraq, as SLCD outbreaks have been reported in Egypt (Idris et al, 2006), Palestine (Ali-Shtayeh et al, 2014), Lebanon (Sobh et al, 2012) and Jordan (AlMusa et al, 2008).…”

“…Squash leaf curl disease (SLCD) has been observed in The USA in 1977. Since then, SLCD incidence was restricted to USA (Lapidot et al, 2014). In 2003, this disease was reported in Israel, then many SLCV outbreaks have been reported on cucurbits in the Middle East region and Egypt as well (Lapidot et al, 2014).…”

“…Since then, SLCD incidence was restricted to USA (Lapidot et al, 2014). In 2003, this disease was reported in Israel, then many SLCV outbreaks have been reported on cucurbits in the Middle East region and Egypt as well (Lapidot et al, 2014). Besides Cucurbitaceae, SLCV has been found to infect hosts belong to the families Fabaceae, Solanaceae, Euphorbiaceae, Chenopodiaceae and Malvaceae (Duffus and Stenger, 1998;Al-Musa et al, 2008;El-Dougdoug et al, 2009).…”

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).…”