Nucleotide sequence of a satellite RNA associated with carrot motley dwarf in parsley and carrot.

Carrot motley dwarf (CMD) is known to result from a mixed infection by two viruses, the polerovirus Carrot red leaf virus and one of the umbraviruses Carrot mottle mimic virus or Carrot mottle virus. Some umbraviruses have been shown to be associated with small satellite (sat) RNAs, but none have been reported for the latter two. A CMD-affected parsley plant was used for sap transmission to test plants, that were used for dsRNA isolation. The presence of a 0.8-kbp dsRNA indicated the occurrence of a hitherto unrecognized satRNA associated with CMD. The satRNAs of the CMD isolate from parsley and an isolate from carrot have been sequenced and showed 94% sequence identity. Nucleotide sequences and putative translation products had no significant similarities to GenBank entries. To our knowledge, this is the first report of satRNAs associated with CMD.