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Identification and characterization of a novel begomovirus, Withania leaf curl virus associated with leaf curl disease of Withania somnifera

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Abstract

Begomovirus is the largest genus of the family Geminiviridae with wide host range and responsible for a considerable amount of economic damage to many important crops globally. Withania somnifera (Indian ginseng) is an important medicinal plant with high demand in pharmaceutical industries worldwide. During the routine survey in 2019, typical characteristic viral symptoms such as severe leaf curling, downward rolling of the leaves, vein clearing, and poor growth of Withania plants with 17–20% disease incidence were observed in Lucknow, India. Typical symptoms, abundant presence of whiteflies, PCR and RCA based detection indicated the amplification of ~ 2.7 kb and suspected the causal pathogen to be a begomovirus, associated with a betasatellite (~ 1.3 kb). Transmission electron microscopy revealed the presence of twinned particles of ~ 18–20 nm in diameter. Full genome sequencing (2758 bp) of the virus and its analysis showed only 88% sequence identity with the begomovirus sequences present in the database. Hence, based on the nomenclature guidelines we concluded that the virus associated with the present disease of W. somnifera is a novel begomovirus and its name is proposed as Withania leaf curl virus.

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Acknowledgements

Authors are thankful to the Director, CSIR-CIMAP, Lucknow, for the necessary facilities, and DST-New Delhi for INSPIRE-SRF to Soumya Sinha.

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Author notes

  1. Asifa Khan and Sana Tabanda Saeed contributed equally to this work.

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Plant Pathology Department, CSIR-Central Institute of Medicinal and Aromatic Plants, P.O. CIMAP, Lucknow, 226015, India

    Asifa Khan, Sana Tabanda Saeed, Soumya Sinha, Sujata Singh Yadav & Abdul Samad

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  1. Asifa Khan
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  2. Sana Tabanda Saeed
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  3. Soumya Sinha
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  4. Sujata Singh Yadav
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  5. Abdul Samad
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Contributions

STS and AK did molecular experiments and data analysis. SS and SSY helped in computational analysis and manuscript preparation. AS overall monitored the experiments and compilation of manuscript.

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Abdul Samad.

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There are no conflicts of interest to declare.

Human and animal studies

This article does not contain any research involving human or animal participants.

Accession numbers

Withania leaf curl virus, DNA-A: OP617239 (GenBank). Ageratum yellow vein betasatellite: OP617240 (GenBank).

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Khan, A., Saeed, S.T., Sinha, S. et al. Identification and characterization of a novel begomovirus, Withania leaf curl virus associated with leaf curl disease of Withania somnifera. 3 Biotech 13, 178 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s13205-023-03606-y

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