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Emerging plant viruses are one of the greatest problems facing crop production worldwide, and have severe consequences in the developing world where subsistence farming is a major source of food production, and knowledge and resources for management are limited. In Africa, evolution of two viral disease complexes, cassava mosaic begomoviruses (CMBs) (Geminiviridae) and cassava brown streak viruses (CBSVs) (Potyviridae), have resulted in severe pandemics that continue to spread and threaten cassava production. Identification of genetically diverse and rapidly evolving CMBs and CBSVs, extensive genetic variation in the vector, Bemisia tabaci (Hemiptera: Aleyrodidae), and numerous secondary endosymbiont profiles that influence vector phenotypes suggest that complex local and regional vector-virus plant-environment interactions may be driving the evolution and epidemiology of these viruses.
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Cassava brown streak virus evolves with a nucleotide-substitution rate that is typical for the family Potyviridae
The ipomoviruses (family Potyviridae) that cause cassava brown streak disease (cassava brown streak virus [CBSV] and Uganda cassava brown streak virus [UCBSV]) are damaging plant pathogens that affect the sustainability of cassava production in East and Central Africa. However, little is known about the rate at which the viruses evolve and when they emerged in Africa – which inform how easily these viruses can host shift and resist RNAi approaches for control. We present here the rates of evolution determined from the coat protein gene (CP) of CBSV (Temporal signal in a UCBSV dataset was not sufficient for comparable analysis). Our BEAST analysis estimated the CBSV CP evolves at a mean rate of 1.43 × 10^3 nucleotide substitutions per site per year, with the most recent common ancestor of sampled CBSV isolates existing in 1944 (95% HPD, between years 1922 – 1963). We compared the published measured and estimated rates of evolution of CPs from ten families of plant viruses and showed that CBSV is an average-evolving potyvirid, but that members of Potyviridae evolve more quickly than members of Virgaviridae and the single representatives of Betaflexiviridae, Bunyaviridae, Caulimoviridae and Closteroviridae.
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- Award ID(s):
- 2308503
- PAR ID:
- 10511966
- Publisher / Repository:
- Elsevier
- Date Published:
- Journal Name:
- Virus Research
- Volume:
- 346
- Issue:
- C
- ISSN:
- 0168-1702
- Page Range / eLocation ID:
- 199397
- Format(s):
- Medium: X
- Sponsoring Org:
- National Science Foundation
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- Free Publicly Accessible Full Text
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Accepted Manuscript1.0
- Journal Article:
- https://doi.org/10.1016/j.virusres.2024.199397
