A novel double-stranded DNA Badnavirus, prunus gummosis bark splitting virus infecting plum

A historic Prunus salicina accession (Ptitsin #10), maintained for decades at the Canadian Food Inspection Agency, consistently produced gummosis, bark splitting, and dieback on indicator cultivars despite testing negative for all known Prunus viruses. High throughput sequencing of symptomatic and asymptomatic graft inoculated trees identified a previously undescribed virus. Genome analysis revealed three open reading frames characteristic of family Caulimoviridae and conserved domains including coat protein, aspartic protease, reverse transcriptase, and RNase H. Phylogenetic analysis placed the virus within genus Badnavirus, group 1, subgroup 1b with less than 80% amino acid identity in the RT/RNase H region relative to closest relatives Green Sichuan pepper vein clearing associated virus, Badnavirus venazanthoxyli, Grapevine vein clearing virus and Badnavirus venavitis, which support its designation as a novel species. Tentatively named prunus gummosis bark splitting virus, Badnavirus prunumosis, this newly discovered virus is graft transmissible, induces severe symptoms in certain cultivars, and remains latent in others. Prunus gummosis bark splitting virus to our knowledge represents the first documented badnavirus infecting Prunus, underscoring the importance of long term surveillance in germplasm collections.