Molecular identification of Ageratum enation virus, betasatellite and alphasatellite molecules isolated from yellow vein diseased Amaranthus cruentus in India.

Natural occurrence of yellow vein disease on Amaranthus cruentus was observed at Lucknow, India in the year 2008. The causal virus was successfully transmitted through whiteflies (Bemisia tabaci) from diseased A. cruentus to healthy seedlings of A. cruentus and other test species which indicated begomovirus infection. The begomovirus DNA-A, betasatellite, and alphasatellite components associated with yellow vein disease were amplified by rolling circle amplification using Ø-29 DNA polymerase from diseased A. cruentus and characterized by their sequence analyses. The begomovirus DNA-A genome contained six ORFs: AV2 and AV1 in virion sense and AC3, AC2, AC1, and AC4 in complementary sense strand; and a non-translated intergenic region having the conserved geminiviral nonanucleotide sequence. The virus isolate showed 97-99% sequence identities and close phylogenetic relationships with various isolates of Ageratum enation virus (AgEV); therefore, the isolate under study was identified as AgEV. The beta- and alphasatellite molecules were also identified to be associated with the disease based on their high sequence identities and close phylogenetic relationships with the respective molecules reported worldwide. Co-infiltration of agro-infectious clones of AgEV DNA-A and its betasatellite DNA induced leaf curl and enation symptoms after 25-35 days on A. cruentus, Nicotiana benthamiana, and N. glutinosa plants. We report the association of AgEV, betasatellite and alphasatellite components with yellow vein disease of A. cruentus from India.