Novel begomoviruses recovered from Pavonia sp. in Brazil

Abstract

Begomoviruses are whitefly-transmitted, single-stranded DNA viruses that cause serious infections in crop plants and are often also associated with non-cultivated plants. Here, we report the detection of two new begomoviruses in Pavonia sp. (Malvaceae). Sequence comparisons and phylogenetic analysis showed that these novel viruses are related to New World begomoviruses. The nucleotide sequences of the DNA-A of both viruses had the highest similarity to abutilon mosaic Bolivia virus (AbMBoV). Based on symptoms observed in the field and considering the host, we propose the names pavonia mosaic virus (PavMV) and pavonia yellow mosaic virus (PavYMV) for these two new begomoviruses.