Nucleotide sequence analysis of seven Japanese isolates of Plantago asiatica mosaic virus (PlAMV): a unique potexvirus with significantly high genomic and biological variability within the species.

The genomic sequences of Plantago asiatica mosaic virus (PlAMV), six lily isolates and one primrose isolate from Japan, were determined. The genomic size of all isolates was 6102 nucleotides, containing the five open reading frames typical of members of the genus Potexvirus. Pairwise comparison analyses confirmed the close relationship between PlAMV and tulip virus X. However, quite low identities were observed between different PlAMV isolates, including foreign isolates; nucleotide sequence identities of the RNA-dependent RNA polymerase (RdRp) gene between a Russian isolate (PlAMV-Ru), a Nandina isolate (PlAMV-Na) and Japanese isolates were 75-77%. These values were the lowest amongst different isolates of the same species of any potexviruses.