A new seed-transmissible begomovirus in bitter gourd (Momordica charantia L.). (March 2019) - Manivannan, Kothandan
Abstract: A begomovirus isolate collected from bitter gourd plants showing yellowing, puckering and stunting symptoms from Coimbatore district, Tamil Nadu, India was characterized. The full-length genome of the virus isolate was amplified by rolling circle amplification using phi 29 DNA polymerase. The virus isolate exhibited 98% identity in the nucleotide sequence of DNA-A component with the Coccinia mosaic Virudhunagar virus (GenBank accession no. KY860899). The DNA-B component was very distinct and shared only 60% identity with the begomovirus, Coccinia mosaic Tamil Nadu virus (GenBank accession no. KM244719). The virus renamed as new species Bitter gourd yellow mosaic virus (BgYMV) was detected in seeds from infected plants and in the grow-out test seedlings by ELISA and virus-specific PCR. The seed infectivity was 79.16% and transmission rate to seedling was 32.05%. The virus titre as indicated by A 405 absorption value was high (0.854–0.280) in different seed parts. Results clearly indicated seed transmission of the begomovirus, BgYMV. Highlights: The virus infecting bitter gourd is characterized as Bitter gourd yellow mosaic virus (BgYMV) (MH481856). A recombination event was detected and the potential major parent was identified to be Tomato leaf curl New Delhi virus (ToLCNDV) from ridge gourd (KT426905) and the minor parent was Croton yellow vein mosaic virus (CrYVMV) (FN678906). BgYMV is highly seed transmissible.