Soybean chlorotic spot virus, a novel begomovirus infecting soybean in Brazil

A novel soybean-infecting begomovirus from Brazil was identified in Jaíba, in the state of Minas Gerais, and molecularly characterized. By using rolling-circle amplification-based cloning of viral DNAs, three DNA-A variants and a cognate DNA-B were isolated from infected samples. The DNA variants share more than 98 % sequence identity but have less than 89 % identity to other reported begomovirus, the limit for demarcation of new species. In a phylogenetic analysis, both DNA-A and DNA-B clustered with other Brazilian begomoviruses. Infectious cloned DNA-A and DNA-B components induced distinct symptoms in Solanaceae and Fabaceae species by biolistic inoculation. In soybean, the virus induced mild symptoms, i.e., chlorotic spots on the leaves, from which the name soybean chlorotic spot virus (SoCSV) was proposed. The most severe symptoms were displayed by common beans, which exhibited leaf distortion, blistering, interveinal chlorosis, mosaic and golden mosaic. The possibility that SoCSV may become a threat to bean production in Brazil is discussed.