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Association of a Begomovirus and Nanovirus-like Molecule with Ageratum Yellow Vein Disease in Pakistan

Whitefly-transmitted geminiviruses (begomoviruses) cause heavy losses to many food and fiber crops in Pakistan. Many weeds also show symptoms typical of begomoviruses. Ageratum (Ageratum conyzoides) is a common perennial weed in Pakistan, growing along irrigation canals, that often shows symptoms, such as yellow vein and mosaic, suggesting infection by a begomovirus. To confirm this, symptomatic and asymptomatic ageratum plants were collected from three locations in the Punjab Province of Pakistan, and total DNA was isolated, subjected to agarose gel electrophoresis, transferred to a nylon membrane, and Southern blotted. Total DNA isolated from cotton infected with Cotton leaf curl virus (CLCuV), tomato infected with Tomato leaf curl virus from Pakistan (TLCV-Pak), tobacco infected with African cassava mosaic virus (ACMV) from Nigeria, and healthy tobacco were included as controls. A full-length clone of CLCuV DNA A was labeled with ^[32P]dCTP by oligo-labeling and hybridized at medium stringency. The probe detected characteristic geminivirus DNA forms in symptomatic ageratum and plants infected with CLCuV, TLCV-Pak, and ACMV, while no signal was detected in asymptomatic ageratum from the field or healthy tobacco. To confirm infection by a begomovirus, degenerate primers WTGF (5′-GATTGTACGCGTCCDCCTTTAATTT GAAYBGG-3′), designed in the rep gene of begomoviruses, and WTGR (5′-TANACGCGTGGC TTCKRTACATGGCCTDT-3′), designed in the coat protein gene of DNA A of begomoviruses, were used in polymerase chain reaction (PCR). Degenerate primers (PBLv2040 and PCRc1) also were used in PCR (2). A product of expected size (≈1.4 kb) was obtained with DNA A primers from symptomatic ageratum, while no product was obtained with DNA B primers in the same sample. Previously we were unable to detect a DNA component equivalent to begomovirus DNA B in cotton showing symptoms of cotton leaf curl disease (1). We recently reported a novel circular DNA molecule that was approximately half as long as the full-length DNA A (CLCuV DNA-1) associated with CLCuV that share homology to plant nanoviruses (1). The supercoiled replicative form of viral DNA isolated from infected ageratum plants indicated the presence of smaller molecules, as was found in cotton leaf curl disease, suggesting that a nanovirus-like molecule might be associated with ageratum yellow vein disease. A duplicate blot of samples used in Southern hybridization with the DNA A probe was prepared, and a probe of the full-length clone of the nanovirus-like molecule (CLCuV DNA-1) was prepared as described for DNA A. The probe detected characteristic nanovirus DNA forms in ageratum with yellow vein symptoms and cotton infected with CLCuV, while no signal was detected in plants infected with TLCV-Pak or ACMV, healthy tobacco, or asymptomatic ageratum. Abutting primers PB2-F and PB2R (1), designed based on the CLCuV DNA-1 sequence, were unable to amplify a PCR product from ageratum with yellow vein symptoms, suggesting the nanovirus-like molecule associated with ageratum yellow vein disease is distinct from CLCuV DNA-1. Our results show that yellow vein disease of ageratum in Pakistan is associated with a begomovirus infection and single-stranded circular DNA molecule with similarity to CLCuV DNA-1.

References: (1) S. Mansoor et al. Virology 259:190, 1999. (2) M. R. Rojas et al., Plant Dis. 77:340, 1993.