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S Comes

Publications and source records attributed to S Comes.

5 recordsLinked to original sources

Characterisation of Potato virus Y nnp strain inducing veinal necrosis in pepper: a naturally occurring recombinant strain of PVY.

The full-length genome of Potato virus Y (PVY) nnp strain, recovered from pepper showing veinal necrosis of leaves, was cloned and sequenced, finding an organisation typical for PVY species. It consists of 9699 nucleotides (nt) excluding the 3' terminal poly(A) tail and contains an open reading frame of 9186 nt, encoding the putative polyprotein of 3061 amino acids. In ELISA, the isolate reacted with a monoclonal antibody specific for PVY(C) but not with antibodies against PVY(N) or PVY(O). Sequence analysis strongly suggests that PVY-nnp originated from a recombination event involving a virus of the PVY(O) type and another parental virus, maybe resembling the PVY(NP) isolates, given the reasonably high similarity shared by PVY-nnp and Lye84.2 and Son41 isolates. The recombination event involved a breakpoint near the middle of the P1 gene, around position 603 of the viral genome. Proof for the existence of such a recombination comes from several lines of evidence, including similarity analysis, recombination analysis using six different methods and the different locations of nnp within phylogenetic trees constructed from genomic regions on either side of the identified recombination breakpoint.

Base Sequence↗

Severe outbreaks of tomato yellow leaf curl Sardinia virus in Calabria, Southern Italy.

During the winter 2003--2004 a serious disease was observed in protected tomato crops in Castrovillari, Reggio Calabria province, Southern Italy. Symptoms consisted in marginal leaf yellowing, leaf curling, plant stunting, flower abortion. The disease was detected in a group of greenhouses (about 10ha) where several tomato cultivars were grown hydroponically. The highest incidence of infection (60-100%) was observed in tomatoes grafted on Beaufort DRS tomato rootstock. Since the symptoms were similar to those described for Tomato yellow leaf curl Sardinia virus (TYLCSV) and Tomato yellow leaf curl virus (TYLCV), detection assays for these viruses were used. In DAS-ELISA positive results were obtained with a abroad-spectrums reagent combination (distributed by Bioreba AG) detecting TYLCV, TYLCSV, and other begomoviruses. When DNA probes were used in tissue print assays, positive reactions were obtained for TYLCSV, but not for TYLCV. The two probes consisted of digoxigenin-labelled DNAs representing the coat protein gene of either TYLCSV or TYLCV. Attempts to isolate the viral agent by mechanical inoculation failed, except in few cases where Potato virus Y and Tobacco mosaic virus were identified following transmission from symptomatic plants to herbaceous indicatorpplants. By contrast, grafting onto tomato seedlings always successfully transmitted the disease. In the Castrovillari area TYLCSV was not reported before. The rootstocks that nurseries used for grafting were obtained from Sicily, where the disease is endemic and both TYLCSV and TYLCV are widespread. Probably the grafted plantlets represented the primary source of infection from which subsequent diffusion by way of the vector Bemisia tabaci followed. In fact the vector had previously been detected in both the glasshouse-grown and open field tomato crops in Calabria region. TYLCV was previously reported in a different area of Calabria in 1991, but apparently it was an occasional outbreak, and B. tabaci was not detected. Since in the Castrovillari area surveyed in the present study tomato is grown throughtout the year in protected crops, the whitefly vector of the virus is present, and some natural hosts of the virus are found, it is feared that TYLCSV may become endemic, as already happened in Sicily, Sardinia, and Spain several years ago. In Spain and Sicily TYLCV, together with TYLCSV, was reported as the causal agent of very severe tomato crop losses. Therefore the danger exists that also TYLCV will reach this area, furthermore complicating the management of tomato crops.

Agriculture↗

The complete nucleotide sequence of Plum pox virus isolates from sweet (PPV-SwC) and sour (PPV-SoC) cherry and their taxonomic relationships within the species.

Plum pox virus (PPV) sweet (SwC) and sour (SoC) cherry isolates were the first PPV isolates to be recovered from natural infection in sweet and sour cherry plants, respectively. Their complete nucleotide sequences have been determined finding a deduced genome organisation typical for PPV species. Both genomes are 9795 nucleotides long, excluding the 3' terminal poly(A) tail, and contain an open reading frame of 9432 nt, encoding a polyprotein of 3143 amino acids. The nucleotide and predicted amino acid sequences of PPV-SwC and SoC have been pairwise compared with available sequences of different PPV strains. Although a very high similarity exists between the whole genomes and polyproteins of the two cherry isolates, high levels of divergence have been calculated with sequences of PPV-M, D and EA isolates. In particular, the most considerable divergence has been found in part of 5' non coding region, in regions encoding P1, P3 + 6K1, 6K2 and NIa-VPg proteins as well as in the N-terminal domain of the coat protein. Phylogenetic analysis have been undertaken in order to establish the taxonomic localisation of SwC and SoC isolates within PPV species, showing that they are always clustered together and separated from the rest of PPV strains, being clearly the most distant.

5' Untranslated Regions↗

Production of strain specific antibodies against a synthetic polypeptide corresponding to the N-terminal region of the plum pox potyvirus coat protein.

Comparison of the predicted coat protein amino acid sequence of the 'sweet cherry' strain of plum pox potyvirus (PPV-SwC) with the corresponding regions of several other PPV strains indicated that the main differences are in the N-terminal region. Polyclonal antibodies were produced against a synthetic peptide corresponding to the 1-14 sequence of the N-terminal region of PPV-SwC coat protein. They specifically detected PPV-SwC in different immunochemical tests.

Amino Acid Sequence↗