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Role Bending: Complex Relationships Between Viruses, Hosts, and Vectors Related to Citrus Leprosis, an Emerging
Avijit Roy1, John S Hartung1, William L Schneider1
1First and eleventh authors: University of Florida, IFAS, Plant Pathology Department, Citrus Research and Education Center, 700 Experiment Station Road, Lake Alfred, FL; second and fourth authors: U.S. Department of Agriculture-Agricultural Research Service (USDA-ARS), Molecular Plant Pathology Laboratory, Beltsville, MD; first and third author: USDA-ARS, Foreign Disease-Weed Science Research Unit, Fort Detrick, MD; fifth author: Centro de Investigación La Libertad, CORPOICA, Villavicencio, Colombia; sixth author: Plant and Environmental Protection Sciences, University of Hawaii, 3190 Maile Way, St. John 205, Honolulu 96822; seventh author: Queensland Museum, South Brisbane, Queensland 4101, Australia; eighth author: Colegio de Postgraduados, Campus Montecillo, Texcoco, Edo. De Mex., CP 56230, México; ninth author: Electron and Confocal Microscopy Unit, USDA-ARS, Beltsville, MD; and tenth author: Systematic Entomology Laboratory, USDA-ARS, Beltsville, MD.
Abstract:
Citrus leprosis complex is an emerging disease in the Americas, associated with two unrelated taxa of viruses distributed in South, Central, and North America. The cytoplasmic viruses are Citrus leprosis virus C (CiLV-C), Citrus leprosis virus C2 (CiLV-C2), and Hibiscus green spot virus 2, and the nuclear viruses are Citrus leprosis virus N (CiLV-N) and Citrus necrotic spot virus. These viruses cause local lesion infections in all known hosts, with no natural systemic host identified to date. All leprosis viruses were believed to be transmitted by one species of mite, Brevipalpus phoenicis. However, mites collected from CiLV-C and CiLV-N infected citrus groves in Mexico were identified as B. yothersi and B. californicus sensu lato, respectively, and only B. yothersi was detected from CiLV-C2 and CiLV-N mixed infections in the Orinoco regions of Colombia. Phylogenetic analysis of the helicase, RNA-dependent RNA polymerase 2 domains and p24 gene amino acid sequences of cytoplasmic leprosis viruses showed a close relationship with recently deposited mosquito-borne negevirus sequences. Here, we present evidence that both cytoplasmic and nuclear viruses seem to replicate in viruliferous Brevipalpus species. The possible replication in the mite vector and the close relationship with mosquito borne negeviruses are consistent with the concept that members of the genus Cilevirus and Higrevirus originated in mites and citrus may play the role of mite virus vector.
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