Viruses, Vol. 16, Pages 267: Meta-Transcriptomic Analysis Uncovers the Presence of Four Novel Viruses and Multiple Known Virus Genera in a Single Hibiscus rosa-sinensis Plant in Colombia

Viruses, Vol. 16, Pages 267: Meta-Transcriptomic Analysis Uncovers the Presence of Four Novel Viruses and Multiple Known Virus Genera in a Single Hibiscus rosa-sinensis Plant in Colombia Viruses doi: 10.3390/v16020267 Authors: Avijit Roy Sam Grinstead Guillermo Leon Martínez Juan Carlos Campos Pinzón Schyler O. Nunziata Chellappan Padmanabhan John Hammond Hibiscus is not native to Colombia but well suited to its arid soil and dry climates. A single hibiscus plant from Risaralda, showing black spots on upper and lower sides of its leaves, was collected for virome analysis using meta-transcriptomic high-throughput sequencing technology. Bioinformatic analysis identified 12.5% of the total reads in the Ribo-Zero cDNA library which mapped to viral genomes. BLAST searches revealed the presence of carlavirus, potexvirus, and of known members of the genera Betacarmovirus, Cilevirus, Nepovirus, and Tobamovirus in the sample; confirmed by RT-PCR with virus-specific primers followed by amplicon sequencing. Furthermore, in silico analysis suggested the possibility of a novel soymovirus, and a new hibiscus strain of citrus leprosis virus C2 in the mixed infection. Both RNA dependent RNA polymerase and coat protein gene sequences of the potex and carla viruses shared less than 72% nucleotide and 80% amino acid identities with any alphaflexi- and betaflexi-virus sequences available in GenBank, identifying three novel carlavirus and one potexvirus species in the Hibisc...
Source: Viruses - Category: Virology Authors: Tags: Article Source Type: research