First Complete Genome Sequence Resource of a Potyvirus lactucae Isolate from the United States of America

Potyvirus lactucae, lettuce mosaic virus (LMV), is a devastating pathogen that impacts commercial lettuce production. The complete genome sequence of an LMV isolate from a romaine lettuce plant (LMV-R) collected in 1994 in the Salinas Valley of California was determined by RNA-seq and Sanger sequencing, followed by 5 ' rapid amplification of cDNA ends (RACE). The genome of LMV-R consists of 10,080 nucleotides and shares the highest nucleotide identity with LMV isolate CL208 from Chile (97.2%) (GenBank accession KJ161176.1). The LMV-R genome encodes for a single large polypeptide (UED15646) with putative proteolytic cleavage sites and showed 98.9% amino acid (aa) identity to a Turkish isolate (UEP55410) and 98.71% aa identity a to Chilean isolate (AIB00275). The sequence and phylogenetic analysis highlight the close association between LMV-R from the United States and CL208 of Chile, indicating that LMV-R might have been exchanged between North America and South America through international trade. Copyright (c) 2024 The Author(s). This is an open access article distributed under the CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 International license.