title: Molecular characterization and construction of an infectious clone of a pepper isolate ofBeet curly top Iran virus.
abstract: Geminiviruses cause curly top disease, in dicotyledonous plants which constrains host crop production.Beet curly top Iran virus(BCTIV) is a widespreadBecurtovirus(familyGeminiviridae) in numerous areas within Iran. In this study, we isolated and analyzed a full-length genomic DNA of a new variant of BCTIV from pepper crops in the Kaftark region, east of Shiraz (proposed acronym: BCTIV-Kaf [IR: Kaf:2016:Pepper]). Infected pepper plants showed shortening of internodes, severe interveinal chlorosis, upward leaf rolling and leaf curling. Sequence and phylogenetic analysis showed this BCTIV variant grouped with sugar beet isolates of BCTIV and has the highest similarity to a sugar beet BCTIV isolate from Negar town in Kerman province, Iran. It was more distantly related to a bean isolate of BCTIV from northeast region of Iran. A tandem repeat partial dimmer of BCTIV was constructed and found to be infectious in pepper, tomato andNicotiana benthamianaplants. Results of this study indicated that BCTIV-Kaf is a new variant of BCTIV infecting pepper plants in Shiraz and that geographic location rather than the type of host plant has more effect on genetic diversity of BCTIV in Iran.
authors.affiliation: Department of Plant Protection, School of Agriculture, University of Zanjan, Zanjan, Iran.
authors.forename: Omid
authors.initials: O
authors.lastname: Eini
authors.affiliation: Plant Virology Research Center, College of Agriculture, Shiraz University, Shiraz, Iran.
authors.forename: Ghazal
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Ebadzad Sahraei
authors.affiliation: Plant Virology Research Center, College of Agriculture, Shiraz University, Shiraz, Iran.
authors.forename: Seyed Ali Akbar
authors.initials: SA
authors.lastname: Behjatnia
keywords: Agroinoculation; BCTIV; Geminivirus; Pepper