Molecular phylogeny and genetic variability of the Potato virus Y (PVY) strains on the CP-encoding region

Abstract

The Potato virus Y (PVY) is one of the most damaging viruses in cultivated potatoes and other Solanaceous crops. In this work, we studied the molecular phylogeny and the genetic variability of 107 PVY isolates selected from "GeneBank" which classification and country origins have been mentioned. The general phylogenetic profile reveals six main genetic clusters of PVY. However, the tree did not highlight a distribution of the PVY according to his geographic isolation. The genetic divergence within and between the deduced groups and subgroups shows that the minimum inter-group genetic divergence is 11%. The alignments of the deduced amino-acids sequence define consensus for each strain group as well as specific differences between them. The specific amino-acids residues of each strain group were highlighted.