Zantedeschia mosaic virus causing leaf mosaic symptom in calla lily is a new potyvirus.

Anovel virus, Zantedeschia mosaic virus (ZaMV-KR), causing mosaic and malformation symptoms was isolated from calla lily ( Zantedeschia spp.) in Korea and its biological and molecular properties were characterized. The virus was distinct from Dasheen mosaic virus, an Araceae-infecting potyvirus, by serological and sequence analyses. Multiple alignments of the CP amino acid sequence between the virus and other potyviruses showed 51.8 to 62.1% identity. Phylogenetic analyses of the CP revealed that the virus could be clustered with Plum pox virus and Turnip mosaic virus. Sequence comparison of the CP gene between the virus and three other ZaMV isolates from Taiwan showed over 93.9% identity, and most of amino acids changes occurred in the N-terminal region. Sequence comparison of 3' NTR revealed homology levels of 27.0 to 47.9% between the virus and other potyviruses. Our results support ZaMV as a distinct species of the genus Potyvirus.