Journal of General Virology (2013) 94, 418-431

Alison T.M. Lima, Roberto R. Sobrinho, Jorge González-Aguilera, Carolina S. Rocha, Sarah J.C. Silva, César A.D. Xavier, Fábio N. Silva, Siobain Duffy and F. Murilo Zerbini (2013)
Synonymous site variation due to recombination explains higher genetic variability in begomovirus populations infecting non-cultivated hosts
Journal of General Virology 94 (2), 418-431
Abstract: Begomoviruses are ssDNA plant viruses that cause serious epidemics in economically important crops worldwide. Non-cultivated plants also harbour many begomoviruses, and it is believed that these hosts may act as reservoirs and as mixing vessels where recombination may occur. Begomoviruses are notoriously recombination-prone, and also display nucleotide substitution rates equivalent to those of RNA viruses. In Brazil, several indigenous begomoviruses have been described infecting tomatoes following the introduction of a novel biotype of the whitefly vector in the mid-1990s. More recently, a number of viruses from non-cultivated hosts have also been described. Previous work has suggested that viruses infecting non-cultivated hosts have a higher degree of genetic variability compared with crop-infecting viruses. We intensively sampled cultivated and non-cultivated plants in similarly sized geographical areas known to harbour either the weed-infecting Macroptilium yellow spot virus (MaYSV) or the crop-infecting Tomato severe rugose virus (ToSRV), and compared the molecular evolution and population genetics of these two distantly related begomoviruses. The results reinforce the assertion that infection of non-cultivated plant species leads to higher levels of standing genetic variability, and indicate that recombination, not adaptive selection, explains the higher begomovirus variability in non-cultivated hosts.
(The abstract is excluded from the Creative Commons licence and has been copied with permission by the publisher.)
Link to article at publishers website
Database assignments for author(s): Siobain Duffy, F. Murilo Zerbini

Research topic(s) for pests/diseases/weeds:
molecular biology - genes

---

Pest and/or beneficial records:

Beneficial	Pest/Disease/Weed	Crop/Product	Country	Quarant.
	Tomato severe rugose virus