Reassortment between genetically distinct Japanese and US strains of Soil-borne wheat mosaic virus: RNA1 from a Japanese strain and RNA2 from a US strain make a pseudorecombinant virus

Summary

 Soil-borne wheat mosaic virus (SBWMV), the type species of the genus Furovirus, has a plus-sense bipartite RNA genome. Japanese and US strains of SBWMV are genetically distantly related, despite their biologically identical properties. Here we report formation of a pseudorecombinant virus consisting of RNA1 from a Japanese strain and RNA2 from a US strain, using infectious in vitro transcripts for both strains. Full-length infectious cDNA clones for a Japanese strain were previously constructed (Yamamiya and Shirako [38]). For RNA1 of a US strain, due to instability of full-length cDNA clones in Escherichia coli cells, it was necessary to prepare a full-length template DNA for in vitro transcription by combining overlapping 5′-terminal and 3′-terminal cDNAs individually cloned in two plasmids, whereas for RNA2 a full-length cDNA clone was the template. For infectivity assays, Chenopodium quinoa, a local lesion host, and wheat, a systemic host, were used. A mixture of Japanese RNA1 transcripts and US RNA2 transcripts caused formation of local lesions on C. quinoa leaves and systemic infection to wheat plants. The nucleotide sequence of the progeny viral RNA2 was identical to that of the US RNA2. The reciprocal combination was not infectious to either host. These results confirm that the Japanese and US SBWMV are genetically distantly related strains belonging to a single species.