The relationships between pea necrosis virus and bean yellow mosaic virus

Bean yellow mosaic, clover yellow vein, and pea mosaic are distinct potyviruses: evidence from coat protein gene sequences and molecular hybridization involving the 3' non-coding regions

The sequences of the 3' 1019 nucleotides of the genome of an atypical strain of bean yellow mosaic virus (BYMV-S) and of the 3' 1018 nucleotides of the clover yellow vein virus (CYVV-B) genome have been determined. These sequences contain the complete coding region of the viral coat protein followed by a 3' non-coding region of 173 and 178 nucleotides for BYMV-S and CYVV-B, respectively. When the deduced amino acid sequences of the coat protein coding regions were compared, a sequence identity of 77% was found between the two viruses, and optimal alignment of the 3' untranslated regions of BYMV-S and CYVV-B gave a 65% identity. However, the degree of homology of the amino acid sequences of coat proteins of BYMV-S with the published sequences for three other strains of BYMV ranged from 88% to 94%, while the sequence homology of the 3' untranslated regions between the four strains of BYMV ranged between 86% and 95%. Amplified DNA probes corresponding to the 3' non-coding regions of BYMV-S and CYVV-B showed strong hybridization only with the strains of their respective viruses and not with strains of other potyviruses, including pea mosaic virus (PMV). The relatively low sequence identities between the BYMV-S and CYVV-B coat proteins and their 3' non-coding regions, together with the hybridization results, indicate that BYMV, CYVV, and PMV are distinct potyviruses.

Potyviruses, chaos or order?

At first potyviruses were easily distinguished by biological and serological properties because only a few were known and information on their host ranges was limited. The first evidence of serological cross reaction between two of these viruses was reported in 1951 and was further corroborated for three obviously distinct members of the group in 1960. In 1968 attention was drawn to the fact that some legume and non-legume potyviruses have much wider host ranges than previously known and that within the potyvirus group there is as much biological variation within viruses and overlap between viruses as there is in serology. The concept of continuity within the group was soon supported by others and became known as the "continuum hypothesis." Results with highly sensitive serological methods using polyclonal antisera were conflicting, and nucleic acid hybridization techniques did not unambiguously discriminate between potyviruses. Recent results, obtained with antibodies directed toward epitopes located in the N-termini of the coat proteins of potyviruses, suggest that there are ways to more definitely group strains of one potyvirus and distinguish them from other potyviruses. However, there are exceptions to this rule, as in the case of bean yellow mosaic virus and clover yellow vein virus which are clearly distinct in host range, inclusion bodies, and migration velocity of coat protein, but which still react with antibodies to the N-terminal epitopes of one virus. So the question remains of whether coat-protein properties, especially the serological reactivity of N-termini, which do not alter overall virus integrity when lost, sufficiently represent the genome of a pathogenic virus entity as a single criterion for classification.

Identification of potyvirus isolates from faba bean (Vicia faba L.), and the relationships between bean yellow mosaic virus and clover yellow vein virus

Clover yellow vein virus (CYVV) isolate H and the related potyvirus isolates E178, E197, and E242 could be distinguished from bean yellow mosaic (BYMV) isolates by their wider host range among non-legume test plant species, the peculiar enlargement of the nucleolus in infected plants, and the larger size of their coat protein as evidenced by slower migration in SDS-PAGE. Serologically, they are qualitatively indistinguishable in electro-blot immunoassay (EBIA) also with antibodies specific to the N-terminal part of BYMV-B25 coat protein, implying therefore that CYVV and BYMV coat proteins contain identical amino acid sequences in the N-terminal region. The faba-bean virus isolates from Sudan, Syria, and The Netherlands could be identified as BYMV isolates especially adapted to faba bean. All of them were weakly pathogenic to Phaseolus bean with the exception of SV205, assuming an intermediate position between Phaseolus-bean isolates, with low pathogenicity to faba bean, and faba-bean isolates, usually having low pathogenicity to Phaseolus bean. Strains of BYMV are thus hard to delimit.