MOLECULAR ANALYSIS OF PEDILANTHUS LEAF CURL VIRUS AND ASSOCIATED SATELLITES INFECTING Chenopodium album IN PAKISTAN.

Whitefly-transmissible begomoviruses (Family-Geminiviridae) are the major pathogens of economically important crops and weeds. In 2004-05, during field surveys in Faisalabad, Pakistan, symptoms of leaf curling and leaf deformations were spotted on leaves of Chenopodium album. Chenopodium album is also known as Bathu (local name). This plant is commonly found in crop fields and around water channels. Fifteen plant leaves showing upward leaf curling were collected from different farmer's fields. Complete virus and associated satellite molecules were amplified through rolling circle amplification (RCA) followed by restriction digestion with suitable enzyme, cloning and sequencing. Basic local alignment search tool (BLAST) showed that leaf curling disease of C. album is associated with Pedilanthus leaf curl virus (PeLCV) along with two different types of betasatellite molecules i.e., Digera yellow vein betasatelite (DiYVB), Cotton leaf curl Multan betasatellite (CLCuMB) and one alphasatellite i.e., Ageratum enation alphasatellite (AEA). Sequence analysis showed that PeLCV is a new variant showing 95-98% sequence homology to PeLCV isolated from India and Pakistan. Associated betasatellites i.e., DiYVB and CLCuMB showed 96-99% sequence homology to satellites isolated from India and Pakistan. Ageratum enation alphasatellite associated with PeLCV was also a new combination and showed 99% sequence homology with other isolates from Pakistan. This is the first report of PeLCV and associated satellites infecting C. album. The data presented in this paper would help in understanding the diversity and etiology of begomoviruses in C. album. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]