scholarly journals First report of Coguvirus eburi infecting pear (Pyrus communis) in South Africa

Plant Disease ◽  
2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kayleigh Bougard ◽  
Hans Jacob Maree ◽  
Gerhard Pietersen ◽  
Julia Christine Meitz-Hopkins ◽  
Rachelle Bester

Coguvirus eburi is a member of the genus Coguvirus in the family Phenuviridae (Khun et al., 2020). The species Coguvirus eburi was established to include citrus virus A (CiVA), which is a negative-sense, single-stranded RNA virus that was first found infecting sweet orange in southern Italy via high-throughput sequencing (HTS) (Navarro et al., 2018). This virus was also found to infect pome fruits in France, such as pear (Svanella-Dumas et al., 2019). More recently CiVA infections have been associated with impietratura disease in citrus (Beris et al. 2021). In the summer of 2021, leaf samples were collected from a pear tree (Pyrus communis cv. Bosc, B175) in the Koue Bokkeveld, South Africa as part of a virus survey. Sample B175 displayed no visual disease symptoms. One gram of leaf petioles was used for total RNA extraction, using a modified CTAB extraction protocol (Ruiz-García et al. 2019). Ribo-depleted RNA was prepared (Ribo-Zero Plant kit) and a sequencing library constructed (Illumina TruSeq Stranded Total RNA). The RNA library was paired-end (2 × 100 bp) sequenced on an Illumina HiSeqX instrument (Macrogen, South Korea). A total of 47,750,152 reads were obtained. Raw data was trimmed for quality with Trimmomatic (SLIDINGWINDOW:3:20, MINLEN:20) (Bolger et al. 2014). De novo assembly performed with CLC Genomics Workbench 11.0.1 (Qiagen) (Default parameters) using high quality reads yielded 75250 contigs. BLASTn analysis identified two viral contigs with high nucleotide (nt) identity to apple stem pitting virus (ASPV) and CiVA. The CiVA contig was 9400 nts and on closer examination, a concatemer of CiVA RNA1 and RNA2. The concatenation occurred due to the characteristic near-identical nucleotides shared at the 5’ and 3’ ends of RNA1 and RNA2 of these negative-stranded RNA viruses (Navarro et al., 2018). After splitting and curation, the RNA1 contig was 6664 nts and the RNA2 contig 2686 nts. A total of 51397 and 34820 reads were used to construct these contigs resulting in an average depth of coverage of 761 and 1281 for RNA1 and RNA2, respectively. The contigs had the highest nt identity to the complete CiVA GenBank accessions MT720885.1 (95.53%) and MW148460.1 (96.03%), spanning 99.6% and 98.1 % of the genomes of RNA1 and RNA2, respectively. These contigs were submitted as partial genomes to GenBank as accessions MZ463039 and MZ463040. Reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) was used to validate the presence of CiVA in sample B175. Two RT-PCR assays, directed at RNA1 and RNA2 respectively (Bester et al. (2021)) were used to generate amplicons. Amplicon sequences were confirmed with bi-directional Sanger sequencing. Twenty-one additional samples from the same orchard as B175 as well as other samples from the Koue Bokkeveld and Elgin areas, including cultivars Abate (10 samples), Forelle (10 samples), Early Bon Chretien (3 samples), Packham’s Triumph (12 samples) and Rosemarie (3 samples), were all surveyed for CiVA using the same RT-PCR assays as mentioned above. Thirty-six of the 59 samples tested were positive for CiVA, which further confirms the presence and wide-spread distribution of this virus in the limited survey conducted in pears in South Africa. However, no association with any disease symptoms or specific cultivar were identified. This is the first report of CiVA infecting pear in South Africa. This study therefore contributed to investigating the distribution of this virus and will assist the South African plant material certification scheme to assess the incidence of CiVA in South Africa.

Plant Disease ◽  
2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kayleigh Bougard ◽  
Hans Jacob Maree ◽  
Gerhard Pietersen ◽  
Julia Christine Meitz-Hopkins ◽  
Rachelle Bester

Apple rubbery wood virus 2 (ARWV-2; Rott et al., 2018) belong to the species Apple rubodvirus 2, a member of the genus Rubodvirus (family Phenuiviridae; Kuhn et al 2020). ARWV-2 was first identified in apples and is associated with apple rubbery wood disease (ARWD) that is characterized by unusual flexibility of stems and branches, reduced growth, shortened internodes and increased cold sensitivity (Jakovljevic et al., 2017, Rott et al., 2018). ARWD was first reported in 1935 in England on apple and has since been found on quince and pear (Jakovljevic et al., 2017; Rott et al., 2018). In January 2021, leaves were collected from a pear tree (Pyrus communis cv. Forelle, F514) in a commercial orchard near Villiersdorp, South Africa. The tree displayed no foliar or tree branch symptoms, except for malformed fruits potentially due to insect feeding damage or pear stony pit disease previously associated with infection of apple stem pitting virus (ASPV) (Paunovic et al. 1999). Leaf petioles (one gram) were used for total RNA extraction, using a modified CTAB extraction protocol (Ruiz-García et al. 2019). A sequencing library was constructed (Illumina TruSeq Stranded Total RNA with plant Ribo-Zero) and sequenced on an Illumina HiseqX instrument (Macrogen, South Korea). A total of 30,709,182 paired-end reads (100 nt) were obtained and trimmed for quality with Trimmomatic (SLIDINGWINDOW:3:20, MINLEN:20) (Bolger et al. 2014). De novo assembly, using default parameters of CLC Genomics Workbench 11.0.1 (Qiagen), resulted in 97,294 contigs. BLASTn analysis identified 17 viral contigs, with 14 contigs having high nucleotide identity to ASPV and three to ARWV-2. The latter contigs included all three segments of ARWV-2. The L contig was 7371 nts, M was 1289 nts and S was 1463 nts in length, generated with 7341, 626 and 9161 reads for segment L, M and S, respectively. Segment S had the highest read coverage (524.87x), followed by segment L (88.07x) and M (36.60x). The ARWV-2 GenBank accessions with the highest percentage identity to the contigs were MF062128.1 from United States of America (98.2% to segment L), MN163134.1 from China (97.5% to segment M) and NC_055535.1 from Germany (93.5% to segment S). The contigs spanned 100%, 80.92% and 100% of these accessions of segments L, M and S, respectively and were deposited in GenBank as accessions MZ593725- MZ593727. Reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) was used to validate the presence of ARWV-2 in sample F514, using primers directed at segments L (con708_178F/con708_666R), M (ARWaV-2S1_38F/ARWaV-2S1_682R) and S (ARWaV-2M567F/ARWaV-2M1342R) (Rott et al., 2018). Amplicon sequences (510 bp (L), 645 bp (M) and 799 bp (S)) were confirmed with bi-directional Sanger sequencing. Fifty-nine additional pear samples were surveyed in 2021 for ARWV-2 using the M segment assay as mentioned above. The survey included the Koue Bokkeveld and Elgin areas, and cultivars Bosc (22 samples), Abate (10 samples), Rosemarie (3 samples), Forelle (9 samples), Packham’s Triumph (12 samples) and Early Bon Chretien (3 samples). A total of 27 samples (11 samples from the Koue Bokkeveld region and 16 samples from the Elgin region) tested positive for ARWV-2, demonstrating the common presence of this virus in pears in South Africa. This is the first report of ARWV-2 infecting pear in South Africa. Although no association with disease symptoms were observed, this study expands the data on the incidence and distribution of this virus in South Africa.


Plant Disease ◽  
2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Guojun Hu ◽  
Yafeng Dong ◽  
Zunping Zhang ◽  
Xudong Fan ◽  
Fang Ren ◽  
...  

More than 30 viral and subviral pathogens infect apple (Malus domestica, an important fruit crop in China) trees and rootstocks, posing a threat to its production. With advances in diagnostic technologies, new viruses including apple rubbery wood virus 1 (ARWV-1), apple rubbery wood virus 2 (ARWV-2), apple luteovirus 1 (ALV), and citrus virus A (CiVA) have been detected (Beatriz et al. 2018; Rott et al. 2018; Hu et al. 2021). ARWV-1 (family Phenuiviridae) is a negative-sense single-stranded RNA virus with three RNA segments (large [L], medium [M], and small [S]). It causes apple rubbery wood disease (Rott et al. 2018) and is found in apple rootstocks, causing leaf yellowing and mottle symptoms in Korea (Lim et al. 2018). To determine virus prevalence in apple trees in China, 200 apple leaf and shoot samples were collected from orchards in Hebei (n = 26), Liaoning (40), Shandong (100), Yunnan (25), and Shanxi (4), and Inner Mongolia (5) in 2020. Total RNA was extracted from the shoot phloem or leaf (Hu et al., 2015) and subjected to reverse transcription (RT)-PCR to detect apple chlorotic leaf spot virus (ACLSV), apple stem pitting virus (ASPV), apple stem grooving virus (ASGV), apple necrotic mosaic virus (ApNMV), apple scar skin viroid (ASSVd), ARWV-2, ARWV-1, ALV, and CiVA, using primers specific to respective viruses (Supplementary Table 1). The prevalence of ACLSV, ASPV, ASGV, ApNMV, ASSVd, ARWV-2, ARWV-1, ALV and CiVA was found to be 75.5%, 85.5%, 86.0%, 43.0%, 4.0%, 48.5%, 10.5%, 0% and 0%, respectively (Supplementary Table 2). Among the 21 positive samples for ARWV-1, three, five and 13 samples were from Hebei, Liaoning, and Shandong, respectively. Five ARWV-1-positive samples (cultivars Xinhongjiangjun, Xiangfu-1, Xiangfu-2 and Tianhong) showed leaf mosaic symptoms. To confirm ARWV-1 by RT-PCR, amplicons from Xiangfu-1 and Tianhong were cloned into the pMD18-T vector (Takara, Dalian, China), and three clones of each sample were sequenced. BLASTn analyses demonstrated that the sequences (accession nos. MW507810–MW507811) shared 96.9%–98.9% identity with ARWV-1 sequences (MH714536, MF062127, and MF062138) in GenBank. An lncRNA library was prepared for high-throughput sequencing (HTS) with the Illumina HiSeq platform using Xiangfu-1 RNA. A total of 71,613,294 reads were obtained. De novo assembly of the reads revealed 135 viral sequence contigs of ACLSV, ASGV, ASPV, ApNMV, ARWV-1, and ARWV-2. The sequences of contig-100_88981 (302 nt) and contig-100_25701 (834 nt) (accession nos. MW507821 and MW507820) matched those of segment S from ARWV-1, whereas the sequences of contig-100_6542 (1,660 nt) and contig-100_27 (7,364 nt) (accession nos. MW507819 and MW507818) matched those of segments M and L, respectively. To confirm the HTS results, fragments of segments L (744 bp), M (747 bp), and S (554 bp) from Xiangfu-1 and Tianhong were amplified (Supplementary Table 1) and sequenced. The sequences (accession nos. MW507812–MW507817) showed 94.8%–99.9% nucleotide identity with the corresponding segments of ARWV-1. Co-infection of ARWV-1 with ApNMV and/or ARWV-2 was confirmed in 17/21 ARWV-1-positive samples. The prevalence of ARWV-1/ApNMV, ARWV-1/ARWV-2, and ARWV-1/ApNMV/ARWV-2 infections was 61.9%, 71.4%, and 52.4%, respectively. To our knowledge, this is the first report of ARWV-1 infecting apple trees in China. Further research is needed to determine whether and how ARWV-1 affects apple yield and quality.


Plant Disease ◽  
2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Hae-Ryun Kwak ◽  
Hui-Seong Byun ◽  
Hong-Soo Choi ◽  
Jong-Woo Han ◽  
Chang-Seok Kim ◽  
...  

In October 2018, cucumber plants showing yellowing and chlorotic mottle symptoms were observed in a greenhouse in Chungbuk, South Korea. The observed symptoms were similar to those caused by cucurbit aphid-borne yellows virus (CABYV), which has been detected on cucumber plants in the region since it was reported on melon in Korea in 2015 (Lee et al 2015). To identify the potential agents causing these symptoms, 28 samples from symptomatic leaves and fruit of cucumber plants were subjected to total RNA extraction using the Plant RNA Prep Kit (Biocubesystem, Korea). Reverse transcription polymerase chain (RT-PCR) was performed on total RNA using CABYV specific primers and protocols (Kwak et al. 2018). CABYV was detected in 17 of the 28 samples, while 11 symptomatic samples tested negative. In order to identify the cause of the symptoms, RT-PCR was performed using cucurbit chlorotic yellows virus (CCYV) and cucurbit yellow stunting disorder virus (CYSDV) specific primers (Wintermantel et al. 2019). Eight of the 28 samples were positive using the CCYV specific primers while seven samples were infected with only CCYV and one contained a mixed infection of CABYV with CCYV. None of the samples tested positive for CYSDV. The expected 373 nt amplicons of CCYV were bi-directionally sequenced, and BLASTn analysis showed that the nucleotide sequences shared 98 to 100% identity with CCYV isolates from East Asia, including NC0180174 from Japan. Two pairs of primers for amplification of the complete coat protein and RNA-dependent RNA polymerase (RdRp) genes (Wintermantel et al., 2019) were used to amplify the 753bp coat protein and 1517bp RdRp genes, respectively. Amplicons of the expected sizes were obtained from a CCYV single infection and ligated into the pGEM T- Easy vector (Promega, WI, USA). Three clones from each amplicon were sequenced and aligned using Geneious Prime and found to have identical sequences (Genbank accession nos. MW033300, MW033301). The CP and RdRp sequences demonstrated 99% nucleotide and 100% amino acid identity with the respective genes and proteins of the CCYV isolates from Japan. This study documents the first report of CCYV in Korea. Since CCYV was first detected on melon in Japan, it has been reported in many other countries including those in East Asia, the Middle East, Southern Europe, North Africa, and recently in North America. CCYV has the potential to become a serious threat to production of cucurbit crops in Korea, particularly due to the increasing prevalence of the whitefly, Bemisia tabaci, in greenhouse production systems. It will be important to continue monitoring for CCYV and determine potential alternate hosts in the region to manage and prevent further spread of CCYV in Korea.


Plant Disease ◽  
2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Polina Panailidou ◽  
Leonidas Lotos ◽  
Chrysoula-Lyto Sassalou ◽  
E. Gagiano ◽  
Gerhard Pietersen ◽  
...  

Grapevine virus H (GVH) is a member of the genus Vitivirus in the family Betaflexiviridae (subfamily Trivirinae, order Tymovirales) that infects grapevine (Candresse et al., 2018). GVH was first identified in a symptomless grapevine of an unknown cultivar from Portugal in 2018 (Candresse et al. 2018), and since then the virus has been reported only from California (Diaz‑Lara et al. 2019). Several vitiviruses have been detected in Greek vineyards (Avgelis and Roubos 2000; Dovas and Katis 2003a; 2003b; Panailidou et al. 2019; Lotos et al. 2020), but no information was available on the presence of GVH. In the fall of 2020, in order to investigate the virome of a commercial vineyard of the cultivar Assyrtiko in northern Greece, a composite sample was made of leaves and petioles from nine vines exhibiting leafroll disease symptoms. Total RNA was extracted from the composite sample according to the protocol of White et al. (2008) and subjected to rRNA depletion, library construction (TruSeq Stranded Total RNA kit), and high-throughput sequencing (HTS) in a NovaSeq6000 platform (Illumina Inc.) at Macrogen (Korea). The resulting ~42 million 101-nt paired-end reads were analyzed in Geneious Prime 2020, and the assembled de novo contigs were subjected to a local BLASTn search, which revealed the presence of 18 grapevine infecting viruses and viroids, among which also a GVH-like contig (GeA-9). GeA-9 was 7,404 nucleotides (nt) long, covering 99.4% of the full virus genome and shared 98.2 % nt identity with a GVH isolate from the USA (MN716768). To confirm the presence of GVH, the nine samples of the cultivar Assyrtiko, used initially to produce the composite sample for HTS analysis, were tested individually by RT-PCR, using the primers GVH_F_2504 (5’-CTGCTTCGCTGAACATATGC-3’) and GVH_R_2835 (5’-ATCATTRTGATCGAGAGAGTAGTG-3’) that amplify a 331-nt segment of ORF1. GVH was detected in five out of the nine tested samples and one of these was reamplified and subjected to Sanger sequencing. The fragment of ORF1 obtained by Sanger sequencing (MW460005) was 97.5% identical to the nucleotide sequence of the corresponding GVH-like de novo contig (GeA-9) from HTS analysis and it shared 97.2% nt identity with GVH sequences reported from Portugal and USA, respectively (NC_040545 and MN716768), confirming the presence of GVH in the tested samples. This is the first report of GVH in grapevine in Greece, thus further increasing the number of vitiviruses known to infect Greek vineyards and also expanding the number of geographic locations in which GVH is recorded so far.


Plant Disease ◽  
2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Despoina Beris ◽  
Ioanna Malandraki ◽  
Oxana Kektsidou ◽  
Christina Varveri

During winter 2020-2021, a severe virus-like disease outbreak was observed in eggplant (Solanum melongena L.) hybrids ‘Monarca’ (F1) and ‘Angela’ (F1) growing under protected conditions in Heraklion, Crete, Greece. In three greenhouses, the percentage of infected plants reached 100% leading to crop abandonment. Symptoms included leaf mottling and yellowing accompanied with plant stunting and apical necrosis. Extensive fruit damage was due to severe malformation and necrotic lesions on the calyx, peduncle and the endocarp (Sup. Fig. 1). To identify the causal agent, total RNA was extracted from a symptomatic eggplant fruit with PureLink™ RNA Mini Kit (ThermoFisher Scientific, USA), which was subjected to high throughput sequencing (HTS) analysis (Illumina Inc., USA). The de novo assembly of the obtained 25 million, 75 bp, single-end reads with Geneious Prime (Biomatters, New Zealand) and the annotation of the resulting contigs with BLASTn revealed the presence of only eggplant mottled crinkle virus (EMCV, genus Tombusvirus) in the sample. The assembled sequence of EMCV isolate from Greece (EMCV-Gr, GenBank Acc. No. MW716271) was 4764 bp in length, covering the full genome of the virus and showing 96.3 % nucleotide (nt) identity with an isolate identified from calla lilies (Zantedeschia sp.) in Taiwan (AM711119). Five symptomatic and seven asymptomatic ‘Monarca’ (F1) eggplants, as well as two symptomatic ‘Angela’ (F1) eggplants were tested by RT-PCR that targeted the capsid protein gene of the virus (Dombrovsky et al., 2009). PCR products of 1184 bp were obtained from the seven symptomatic samples and their Sanger sequencing revealed 100 % nt identity with the respective HTS-derived EMCV sequence. No product was obtained from the analysis of the asymptomatic samples. Mechanical sap transmission of the HTS analysed eggplant sample resulted in necrotic local lesions on Nicotiana rustica and Chenopodium quinoa, necrotic local lesions plus systemic necrosis on N. tabacum cv. Xanthi-nc, cv. Samsun and N. glutinosa, systemic collapse of N. benthamiana, and leaf mottling plus stunting of pepper cv. Yolo Wonder plants (Sup. Fig. 1I). Although no symptoms were observed on tomato plants cv. Ace 55, systemic EMCV infection was detected by RT-PCR. To establish the relationship between the disease and EMCV, infected tissue from N. benthamiana plants was used for the mechanical inoculation of virus-tested negative eggplant seedlings cv. Black beauty. Necrotic spots, shoot necrosis, leaf mottling and mosaic, symptoms were observed (Sup. Fig. J) on the test plants ten days post inoculation and the presence of the virus was confirmed by RT-PCR as described. To the best of our knowledge this is the first report of EMCV infecting eggplant in Greece. The virus was originally described in eggplant in Lebanon (Makkouk et al., 1981) and it is mainly present outside the European Union (EU) territory, including India, Japan, Taiwan, Iran and Israel (Dombrovsky et al., 2009 and references therein). A latent EMCV infection was detected in pear in Italy (Russo et al., 2002) and the virus is considered by the European Food Safety Authority as an exotic virus of the genera Cydonia, Malus, and Pyrus that meets all the criteria to qualify as an EU quarantine pest (Bragard et al., 2019). Τhe severity of the disease observed in Crete leading to the destruction of eggplant greenhouse cultivations, constitutes EMCV as an emerging threat to eggplant and other solanaceous crops for Greece and Europe.


Plant Disease ◽  
2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Chengyong He ◽  
Xiaoli Zhao ◽  
Lingjiao Fan ◽  
Shifang Li ◽  
Hongqing Wang

Brassica yellows virus (BrYV; genus Polerovirus, family Solemoviridae) has an icosahedral spherical virion with a positive-sense single-stranded RNA genome and it is distinguished from turnip yellows virus (TuYV) based on differences in ORF0 and ORF5 (Xiang et al., 2011). To investigate the occurrence and distribution of viruses infecting strawberry (Fragaria ananassa) in the main production areas in China, a survey of nine greenhouses (667 m2 each) was conducted in the cities of Yantai and Beijing, China in August 2020. About 1% of strawberry plants in each greenhouse showed virus-like symptoms of chlorotic spots; 89 symptomatic leaf samples were randomly collected for virus testing. Total RNA was extracted from a pool of eight samples of four different cultivars (Hokowase: 2, Mibao: 2, Sagahonoka: 2, Monterey: 2) from Yantai using RNAprep Pure Plant Plus Kit (TianGen, China). A cDNA library was constructed by NEBNext® Ultra™ Directional RNA Library Prep Kit for Illumina® (NEB, USA) after ribosomal RNA-depletion using an Epicentre Ribo-Zero™ rRNA Removal Kit (Epicentre, USA). High-throughput sequencing was done on Illumina Hiseq 4000, generating 70,931,850 high-quality 150 bp paired-end reads. Clean reads were de novo assembled by Trinity (v2.2.0) and the resulting contigs were screened by BLASTn and BLASTx against GenBank database as described previously (Grabherr et al., 2013). A total of 1,432,164 high-quality reads unmapped to the strawberry genome were obtained and assembled into 93 contigs (ranging from 33 to 8,031 nt). Seven of these contigs (277 to 1,254 nt) shared 98.2 to 100% nt identities with BrYV-A (accession no. HQ388348) and covered 89.5% of the genome of BrYV-A. Subsequent analyses indicated the presence of Strawberry pallidosis-associated virus and Strawberry mottle virus in the analyzed sample, both have been reported in strawberry in China (Shi et al., 2018; Fan et al., 2021). To confirm BrYV infection, total RNA was isolated from the eight samples used for HTS and reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) was conducted with two pairs of specific primers (CP and rtp, Supplementary Table 1) designed based on the assembled contigs. PCR products with expected sizes (587 and 609 bp) were observed in one sample (cv. Mibao). BLASTn analysis indicated that the amplicons (accession no. MW548437 and MW548438) shared 98.6% and 99.3% nt identity with BrYV-A, respectively. To obtain the complete sequence of the putative BrYV isolate, the gaps were bridged and the terminal sequences were determined using 5ʹ and 3ʹ RACE kits (Clontech, China) based on the assembled contigs. The complete genome sequence of the putative BrYV isolate has a length of 5,666 nt (accession no. MZ666129) and shares more than 94.3% nt identities with other BrYV isolates. Phylogenetic analysis indicated that the isolate grouped closely with BrYV and further from TuYV (Figure S1). In addition, 11 samples (cv. Benihoppe) of the remaining 81 symptomatic strawberry samples tested positive for BrYV by RT-PCR with the two pairs of primers mentioned above. The sequences (accession no. MZ407232 and MZ407233) revealed 99.5% and 99.3% nt identities with MW548437 and MW548438. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first report of natural infection of BrYV in strawberry plants. Our findings expand the host range of BrYV, but disease association is difficult to establish due to presence of mixed infection and non-fulfillment of Koch's postulates.


Plant Disease ◽  
2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Xiaoling Sai ◽  
Zhen Liu ◽  
Xuemeng Ma ◽  
Yinying Zheng

Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region is the largest grape-producing area in China, with a grape output of 3.05 million tons in 2020, accounting for nearly 20% of the total grape output in China (National Bureau of Statistics, 2021). Viral disease is a major factor threatening the grape industry and results in large economic losses by affecting the quality of grapes and wines. Actually, nearly 80 different viruses have been recorded in grapevine (Fuchs, 2020). To identify viruses that infect grapevine in Xinjiang, leaves of four vines of cultivar Cabernet Sauvignon with symptoms of chlorotic spots and crinkling were collected from a vineyard at Shihezi University in Shihezi City in May 2019 and pooled for total RNA extraction (Invitrogen™ PureLink ® Plant RNA Reagent, USA). After ribodepletion, a cDNA library was prepared using the Ribo-ZeroTM Kit (Illumina, San Diego, USA) and subjected to high-throughput sequencing (HTS) on the Illumina NovaSeq 6000 platform (Novogene, China). In total, 41,799,420 paired-end reads (150 nt × 2) were obtained after performing quality control using Trimmomatic version 0.39 (Bolger et al., 2014). These reads were de novo assembled into 154,716 contigs using the rnaSPAdes method in SPAdes software with default parameters (Bankevich et al., 2012). BLASTn analysis of these contigs led to the identification of 59 viral-related contigs from 248 -18476 bp. These contigs belonged to six positive-stranded RNA viruses, namely, grapevine polerovirus 1 (GPoV-1; 2 contigs), grapevine berry inner necrosis virus (GBINV; 4 contigs), grapevine leafroll-associated virus 3 (GLRaV-3; 2 contigs), grapevine Pinot gris virus (GPGV; 3 contigs), grapevine rupestris stem pitting-associated virus (GRSPaV; 4 contigs), and grapevine fleck virus (GFkV; 17 contigs); one DNA virus, grapevine geminivirus A (GGVA; 2 contigs); and one viroid, Australian grapevine viroid (AGVd; 1 contig). Among them, GPoV-1 is a newly discovered grape-infecting virus that has recently been reported from Japan and France (Candresse et al., 2020; Chiaki and Ito, 2020). The two contigs of GPoV-1 were assembled manually into a 5627-nt scaffold that covers 99.6% of the genome of the reference GPoV-1 isolate (MT008025). The scaffold shared 98.5% and 98.2% nucleotide (nt) sequence identities with the French GPoV-1 isolate KT (MT008025) and the Japanese GPoV-1 isolate KC (LC505098), respectively. To confirm the GPoV-1 infection of the grapevines used for HTS analysis, we designed a primer pair targeting the coding region of the P1 protein GP30F (5′-CCTCTTTCGCTGCCATAGGC-3′) and GP2180R (5′-CCTGGAGCCTTAAGCTGGTG-3′) and applied them in revere transcription (RT)-PCR using a PrimeScriptTM One Step RT–PCR Kit (Takara, China) to detect GPoV-1. The expected 2151-bp fragment was amplified from one of the four grapevine samples. The amplicon was cloned into the pMD19-T vector (TaKaRa, China) and Sanger sequenced. BLASTn analysis showed that the sequence of the amplicon (GenBank accession no. OK574336) shared 98% identity with the scaffold obtained from HTS and shared 98.5% and 97.4% identity with the GPoV-1 isolates KT and KC, respectively. To determine the occurrence of GPoV-1 in the vineyard, 8 and 20 leaves were randomly collected from grapevines of cvs. Black Monukka and Cabernet Sauvignon, respectively. We designed a primer pair of GPoV4264F (5′-ACTGCACAGACTCTCACACG-3′) and GPoV4657R (5′- TCCTTCGCGCAGTCACTATC-3′), which target the coding region of the P3-P5 fusion protein. An expected 394-bp amplicon was detected in 2 out of the 8 Black Monukka and 7 out of the 20 Cabernet Sauvignon leaf samples. Sanger sequencing confirmed the GPoV-1 identity of the amplicons. Although all the samples used for HTS analysis displayed symptoms, 4 of 9 samples in which GPoV-1 infection was detected were asymptomatic, suggesting that GPoV-1 may be latent, as reported previously (Candresse et al., 2020). To the best of our knowledge, this is the first report of GPoV-1 infection of grapevine in China. Although most members of the genus Polerovirus (family Solemoviridae) are transmitted by aphids, how GPoV is transmitted remains unknown, representing an increased risk for its spread. Therefore, attention should be given to reducing the prevalence of GPoV-1 in grape-producing areas in China, especially in Xinjiang.


Plant Disease ◽  
2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mi Sang Lim ◽  
Byoung-Eun Min ◽  
Sun Hee Choi

Saguaro cactus virus (SgCV, genus Carmovirus, family Tombusviridae) was first isolated from an asymptomatic giant saguaro cactus (Carnegiea gigantea) in Arizona, USA (Milbrath and Nelson, 1972). In November 2017, 30 asymptomatic grafted cactus plants (Gymnocalycium mihanovichii grafted onto Hylocereus trigonus) were randomly collected from a commercial market in Gyeonggi Province, South Korea. Total RNA was extracted from both the scions and rootstocks of the plants using an RNeasy Plant Mini Kit (Qiagen, Germany) then subjected to reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) using RevertAid reverse transcriptase (Thermo Scientific, USA), TaKaRa Taq (TaKaRa, Japan), and SgCV-CP primers (forward, 5′- ATGGACGCTAAGTATGCG-3′; reverse, 5′- TCAGAGCCTAGCAACATA-3′). A validated SgCV stock (PV 0734, DSMZ, Germany) was used as an RT-PCR positive control. Out of 30 samples each of the rootstocks and scions, 21 and 8 produced, respectively, an amplicon at the expected size of 1,035 bp. The amplicons from three samples were cloned into a pGEM-T easy vector (Promega, USA), and three clones of each sample were sequenced (Macrogen, South Korea). The amplicons shared 100 % sequence identity with each other. BLASTn analysis showed that the sequence shared the highest identity at 66.3% with SgCV isolate Arizona (GenBank U72332). For bioassay of the virus, sap from infected G. mihanovichii was mechanically inoculated on four indicator plant species. The virus induced local lesions in Chenopodium amaranticolor, C. quinoa, and Gomphrena globosa, and systemic necrosis including growth reduction in C. capitatum. These results are consistent with those reported on SgCV by Milbrath and Nelson (1972). For determination of the exact species of the virus, non-inoculated leaves of C. capitatum were harvested 21 days after mechanical inoculation and subjected to total RNA extraction using the RNeasy Plant Mini Kit (Qiagen). A cDNA library was prepared using TruSeq RNA sample preparation v2, and sequenced on a NovaSeq 6000 system sequencer (Macrogen, South Korea). A total of 137,393,766 raw reads were quality-trimmed, and assembled into 120,408 contigs with sizes ranging from 201 to 15,898 nt using the Trinity program (r20140717). The assembled contigs were screened against the NCBI viral genome database using BLASTn, and a single contig of 3,858 nt matched the SgCV (acc. number U72332, coverage 88%, identity 70.3%). The sequence was deposited in GenBank (SgCV-gm, MW590184) and contained five open reading frames (ORFs), which is consistent with those of SgCV reported by Weng and Xiong (1997). Using DNAMAN software (Lynnon Biosoft, Canada) the deduced amino acid sequences encoded by the ORFs were determined and their homology with respective ORF proteins of various carmoviruses was subsequently compared (Table S1). The deduced protein sequences shared the highest identity of 68.2 to 81% with those of the SgCV isolate Arizona. King et al. (2012) suggested respective artificial host range reactions and percentage of coat protein and polymerase amino acid sequence identities of less than 52% and 57% as criteria for species demarcation in Carmovirus. These features suggest that SgCV-gm should possibly be designated a new SgCV isolate. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first report of SgCV naturally infecting G. mihanovichii in South Korea. Further research is needed to gain more in-depth insight into the biological and pathological properties of this virus.


Plant Disease ◽  
2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ziad M Hasan ◽  
Nidà Mohammed Salem ◽  
Imad D. Ismail ◽  
Insaf Akel ◽  
Ahmad Y Ahmad

Tomato (Solanum lycopersicum L.) is an important vegetable crop worldwide. In spring and autumn 2017, virus-like symptoms were observed on greenhouse grown tomato plants in the east of Akkar plain (south of coastal region, Tartous governorate, Syria). These symptoms were: mild to severe mosaic on the apical leaves, brown necrosis on sepals, receptacle and flower’s cluster carrier, and severe symptoms of brown rugose and discoloration on fruit. During next growing seasons, disease spread was observed in most of Syrian coastal region with disease incidence ranged from 40% to 70% by 2020. Tomato brown rugose fruit virus (ToBRFV) was suspected as a main causal agent of the disease, especially since its first report in Jordan, a neighboring country (Salem et al. 2016), Palestine (Alkowni et al. 2019), Turkey (Fidan et al. 2019), Germany (Menzel et al. 2019), Italy (Panno et al. 2019), America (Camacho-Beltrán et al. 2019), Egypt (Amer and Mahmoud, 2020), and recently in Spain (Alfaro-Fernandez et al. 2021). In November and December 2020, seventy-one leaf samples from symptomatic plants (59 from Tartous and 12 from Lattakia governorates) and seven from asymptomatic ones (5 from Tartous and 2 from Lattakia) were collected and tested for the presence of ToBRFV by double-antibody sandwich enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (DAS-ELISA), using ToBRFV-commercial kit (LOEWE® Biochemia, Germany) following the manufacturer’s instructions. Results showed, forty-three of symptomatic samples reacted positively (38 in Tartous and 5 in Lattakia) and none of asymptomatic ones. On the other hand, sap mechanical inoculation of 10 tomato cv. Mandaloun F1 (Enza Zaden, the Netherlands) plants using a positive tomato isolate gave systemic mosaic symptoms in all plants identical to those observed in the original plants in the field, after 13 days of inoculation, and necrotic local lesions on 10 plants of Nicotiana tabacum after 5 days, indicating the presence of a tobamovirus in general. ToBRFV infection was confirmed in all mechanically-inoculated plants by DAS-ELISA. Further tests were necessary to investigate ToBRFV presence, because of its serological relationships with another tobamoviruses. Six representative symptomatic samples (ELISA-positive) and two asymptomatic (ELISA-negative) samples were subjected to total RNA extraction using the SV-Total RNA Extraction kit (Promega, U.S.A.) following the manufacturer’s instructions. The samples were tested by two-step reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) using species-specific primers and protocols for most common tomato-infecting viruses, including: tomato chlorosis virus and tomato infectious chlorosis virus (Dovas et al. 2002), pepino mosaic virus (PepMV) and tomato torrado virus (Wieczorek et al. 2013), alfalfa mosaic virus (Parrella et al. 2000), tomato spotted wilt virus (Salem et al. 2012) and a pair of primers: ToBRFV-F2 (5’-CATATCTCTCGACACCAGTAAAAGGACCCG-3’) and ToBRFV-R2 (5’-TCCGAGTATAGGAAGACTCTGGTTGGTC-3’) targeting a region of the RNA dependent RNA polymerase (RdRp), of the ToBRFV genome (KT383474; Salem et al. 2016). First-strand cDNA synthesis was carried out using Moloney murine leukemia virus reverse transcriptase (M-MLV RT; Promega) and random primer according to the manufacturer's protocol, then followed by PCR with the seven species-specific primers. Only ToBRFV was detected among all tested viruses in symptomatic samples (ELISA-positive), and none of the tested viruses was detected in the asymptomatic plants. To confirm the presence of ToBRFV, two selected RdRp-specific PCR amplicons (872 bp) were purified and ligated into pGEM T-Easy Vector (Promega), and three clones were sequenced (GenBank accession nos. MZ447794 to 96). BLASTn analysis showed that the nucleotide sequences are 99.77-100% identical and shared around 99% identity to RdRp of ToBRFV isolate (MT118666) from Turkey available in the GenBank. Accordingly, the presence of ToBRFV was confirmed by bioassays on indicator plants, DAS-ELISA, RT-PCR, and further sequencing. To our knowledge, this is the first report of ToBRFV infecting tomato in Syria, and this requires special emphasis for further investigations because of the virus severity, easy transmission ability and absent of commercial resistance varieties till now.


Plant Disease ◽  
2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
In Sook Cho ◽  
Chang Youl Yang ◽  
Ju-Yeon Yoon ◽  
Tae Ryong Kwon ◽  
John Hammond ◽  
...  

Passiflora latent virus (PLV), a member of the genus Carlavirus in the family Betaflexiviridae has been reported in Passiflora species in Australia, Germany, Israel, the United States, and New Zealand (Tang et al., 2008). In September 2019, leaves showing a virus-like disease with mosaic, curling and necrosis were collected from ten persimmon (Diospyros kaki Thunb.) orchards in Gyeongsang province, Korea. Total RNA from a pooled sample of leaves from 21 trees was extracted using RNeasy Plant Mini Kit (Qiagen, Germany) and subjected to high throughput sequencing. After pre-processing and Ribo-Zero rRNA Removal, a cDNA library was prepared using an Illumina TruSeq Stranded Total RNA Kit and sequenced on an Illumina NovaSeq 6000 system (Macrogen Inc. Korea). De novo assembly of the 74,862,810 reads was performed using Trinity software (r20140717); the initially assembled 213,476 contigs were screened against the NCBI viral genome database using BLASTN. By these means, 12 contigs derived from PLV were identified. Contigs with lengths of 209 to 802 nt shared nt identities of 90.70 to 94.82% with PLV isolates, covering a total of 5,169 nt (~61.6% of the full PLV genome). Two additional viruses were also detected from the pooled sample: persimmon cryptic virus (PeCV) and persimmon virus A (PeVA). To confirm PLV infection, reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) was performed using virus-specific primers, PLV-F (5’-ACACAAAACTGCGTGTTGGA-3’) and PLV-R (5’-CAAGACCCACCTACCTCAGTGTG-3’), designed based on a 633 nt contig sequence in the polymerase gene. RT-PCR products of the expected 571 bp were obtained from two of 21 individual original samples; no asymptomatic plants were tested. Amplicons were cloned into the pGEM-T Easy Vector, and two clones per sample Sanger sequenced bidirectionally (BIONEER, Korea). The identical Sequence (GenBank LC556232) showed 99.65% nt identity to the contig, and 93.87% identity with the corresponding polymerase sequence of PLV-Rehovot isolate from passion fruit in Israel (MH379331). The two PLV positive samples showing leaf necrosis were also co-infected with PeVA, identified by RT-PCR using previously reported primers PeVAfor/ PeVArev (Morell et al., 2014), but not with PeCV (mixed with PeVA in only 1/21 plants; PeVA was found in 19/21 plants). None of the tested viruses were detected in two trees, displaying mosaic, and leaf curling, respectively. The foliar symptoms of PLV infection on passionfruit have been reported to vary throughout the year (Spiegel et al., 2007). No such observations in persimmon was possible, as the infected persimmon trees were removed and destroyed because they might pose a threat to the cultivation of passion fruits in Korea. To our knowledge, this is the first report of persimmon as a host of PLV anywhere in the world, and the first report of PLV in Korea in any host. A further survey is needed to determine possible presence of PLV on persimmon and Passiflora species.


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