DETECTION AND MOLECULAR CHARACTERIZATION OF THREE BEGOMOVIRUSES ASSOCIATED WITH YELLOW VEIN DISEASE OF ECLIPTA PROSTRATA IN FUJIAN, CHINA

Eclipta prostrata plants, a common weed species in China, showing vein yellowing symptoms were collected in Fujian province. A fragment of approximately 500 bp was amplified from 13 samples by PCR, using special degenerate primers for DNA-A of begomoviruses. Sequence alignment of the 500 bp fragments revealed overall similarities of 58.1% to 67.0%, indicating that these samples were infected by three distinct viruses, represented by isolates denoted F23, F25 and F26. The complete sequences of the three isolates were determined to be, respectively, 2,740 (EF544602), 2,749 (AM691552) and 2,786 (AM691555) nucleotide in size. Sequence comparisons revealed that these isolates were most closely related to Alternanthera yellow vein virus (AlYVV, DQ375456), Papaya leaf curl China virus (PaLCuCNV, AJ811914) and Pepper yellow vein Mali virus (PYVMlV, FM876847), with a sequence identity of 91.9%, 99.1% and 94.0%. Therefore, F23, F25 and F26 are considered to be isolates of AlYVV, PaLCuCNV and PYVMlV, respectively. Evidence of recombination was found in the F26 genome. Whitefly transmission assays showed that all isolates could individually infect E. prostrata. The results indicate that E. prostrata plants are reservoirs of several begomoviruses in China, and may play a significant role in begomovirus epidemics. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first report of PaLCuCNV and PYVMlV infecting E. prostrata.