Molecular characterization of groundnut bud necrosis virus (GBNV) infecting tomato and its phylogenetic relationship

Abstract

Tomato is a prime vegetable cum spice crop and it is infected by Orthotospovirus, becoming a serious threat to cultivation worldwide. A survey was conducted in tomato-growing areas of Tamil Nadu and found the incidence of tospovirus based on necrotic symptoms on the plants. The samples with typical symptoms of necrosis have successfully established the chlorotic and necrotic lesions in the assay host, cowpea upon artificial inoculation as the characteristic of tospovirus. Further, an expected cDNA fragment sequence of about 840 bp was positively amplified using PCR, confirming the presence of groundnut bud necrosis virus (GBNV) in tomato. The nucleotide and amino acid sequence of CP gene of GBNV showed high sequence similarity with exiting isolates up to 97.78 percent. The nucleotide profiling of CP gene of GBNV provides the knowledge on properties of the CP gene and its structural relationships, which could pave the way to employ the development of a resistance strategy in tomato.