Archivio Journal of Plant Pathology

Abstract:

A brief account is given of the genetic variability of Fig mosaic virus (FMV) in Tunisia. The analysis of 10 isolates from different fig cultivars and areas of the country has shown nucleotide sequence identities ranging between 90-99% in RNA-1 (302 bp analyzed), 93-99% in RNA-2 (234 bp) and 96-100% in RNA-3 (304 bp). These identity levels decreased to 86%, 90% and 93% for RNA-1, -2 and -3, respectively, when isolates from other geographical areas were included in the analysis. In the phylogenetic tree constructed with partial sequences of RNA-3 of 34 different FMV isolates (13 from this study and 21 from GenBank), the isolates separated into four distinct clades according to their geographic origin: clade I included isolates from Turkey and Israel; clade II included isolates from North America (California and Canada), Japan and Turkey; clade III grouped all Tunisian isolates and those from other Mediterranean countries (Italy, Algeria, Lebanon and France); and clade IV included only Serbian isolates. The preliminary comparative analysis conducted on three RNA segments of FMV highlighted that RNA-3, which codes for the viral nucleoprotein, is the most conserved, being subjected to a strong negative selection.