Sequence Diversity of the Nucleoprotein Gene of Peanut bud necrosis virus Isolates from South India

Abstract

Peanut bud necrosis virus (PBNV), genus Tospovirus (family Bunyaviridae), is an important virus infecting peanut and other crops in South India. PBNV isolates naturally infecting groundnut, brinjal, tomato, black gram, field bean, cowpea, cotton, jute, taro and Calotropis plants were collected from different regions of South India and characterized. Infection was confirmed by direct antigen-coating enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (DAC-ELISA) using PBNV-specific antiserum. The coat protein gene was further amplified using PBNV coat protein-specific primers. The amplicon (830 bp) was cloned and sequenced; sequence analysis revealed that the N gene shared 93-100% and 95-100% sequence identity with PBNV at the nucleotide and amino acid levels, respectively. © 2013 Blackwell Verlag GmbH.