Naturally infected Dioscorea alata plants showing mild mosaic were collected in 1998 on the island of Martinique in the Caribbean. Isolates were first screened by double-antibody sandwich enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) with monoclonal antibodies raised against Yam mosaic virus (YMV) and antigen-coated plate ELISA with universal potyvirus monoclonal antibodies (Agdia, Elkhart, IN). A positive reaction was obtained only with the universal potyvirus antiserum. Immunocapture reverse-transcriptase polymerase chain reaction was performed for specific detection of Yam mild mosaic virus (YMMV [3]) and YMV. A product with the predicted size of 249 bp was obtained with YMMV primers. YMMV is a recently recognized distinct potyvirus infecting D. alata in West Africa and the South Pacific (2--4). It was originally described as Yam virus I and is synonymous with Dioscorea alata virus (4). To characterize the YMMV Martinique isolate, total RNA was extracted, and universal potyvirus degenerate primers (1) were used to amplify a 700-bp fragment that included the core and C-terminal region of the coat protein (CP) and 3′ untranslated region (3′UTR). Sequence information generated (EMBL AJ250336) from the cloned fragment was compared with sequences of other yam potyviruses. Sequence comparisons of the partial CP (453 nt) showed a similarity of 94.6% (amino acids [aa]) with the YMMV isolate from Papua New Guinea (EMBL AB022424 [2]); 72.2% (aa) with the Japanese yam mosaic virus (JYMV) isolate (EMBL AB016500); and 67 to 73% (aa) with 27 YMV isolates. These sequences are most diverse in the 3′UTR, which showed a similarity of 72.8% with the YMMV Papua New Guinea isolate, 30% with the JYMV isolate, and 26% with the YMV isolates. These results confirm, as previously shown by S. Fuji et al. (2), that YMMV should be classified as a new potyvirus of yam. This is the first report of the natural occurrence of YMMV in the Caribbean.
References: (1) Colinet et al. Phytopathology 84:65, 1994. (2) S. Fuji et al. Arch Virol. 144:1415, 1999. (3) R. A. Munford and S. E. Seal. J. Virol. Methods 69:73, 1997. (4) B. O. Odu et al. Ann. Appl. Biol. 134:65, 1999.
