Genetic diversity of Hungarian Maize dwarf mosaic virus isolates.

The genetic diversity of the coat-protein (CP) region and the untranslated C-terminal region (3'UTR) of Maize dwarf mosaic virus (MDMV) was analyzed to evaluate the variability between isolates (inter-isolate sequence diversity). The results of inter-isolate sequence diversity analysis showed that the diversity of the MDMV CP gene is fairly high (p-distance: up to 0.136). During sequence analysis, a 13 amino-acid residue insertion and an 8 amino-acid residue deletion were found within the N-terminal region of the CP gene. The phylogenetic analysis showed that-unlike other potyvirus species in this subgroup-the MDMV isolates could not be distinguished on the basis of their host plants or geographic origins.