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The potyviruses of Australia

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Abstract

Many potyviruses have been found in Australia. We analyzed a selected region of the coat protein genes of 37 of them to determine their relationships, and found that they fall into two groups. Half were isolated from cultivated plants and crops, and are also found in other parts of the world. Sequence comparisons show that the Australian populations of these viruses are closely related to, but less variable than, those in other parts of the world, and they represent many different potyvirus lineages. The other half of the potyviruses have only been found in Australia, and most were isolated from native plants. The sequences of these potyviruses, which are probably endemic, are on average five times more variable than those of the crop potyviruses, but surprisingly, most of the endemic potyviruses belong to one potyvirus lineage, the bean common mosaic virus lineage. We conclude that the crop potyviruses entered Australia after agriculture was established by European migrants two centuries ago, whereas the endemic plant potyviruses probably entered Australia before the Europeans. Australia, like the U.K., seems recently to have had c. one incursion of a significant crop potyvirus every decade. Our analysis suggests it is likely that potyviruses are transmitted in seed more frequently than experimental evidence indicates, and shows that understanding the sources of emerging pathogens and the frequency with which they ‘emerge’ is essential for proper national biosecurity planning.

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Acknowledgments

We are very grateful for useful comments and information supplied by Carlye Baker, Mark Clements, Bryan Harrison, Roger Jones, Ramon Jordan, Terry Macfarlane, Rick Mumford, Kazusato Ohshima, Denis Persley, Brendan Rodoni, Len Tessorerio, Anupam Varma, Colin Ward, Les Watson, Josef Vetten. AJG is especially grateful to Pat Gibbs, and Drs. Ian Mills and Michael Pidcock for their special support.

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Author notes

  1. A. J. Gibbs

    Present address: , 7 Hutt St, Yarralumla, ACT, 2600, Australia

  2. A. M. Mackenzie

    Present address: Division of Plant Industry, C.S.I.R.O., Black Mountain Laboratories, Canberra, ACT, 2601, Australia

  3. M. J. Gibbs

    Present address: , 79 Carruthers St, Curtin, ACT, 2605, Australia

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Research School of Biological Sciences, Australian National University, Canberra, ACT, 0200, Australia

    A. J. Gibbs, A. M. Mackenzie, K.-J. Wei & M. J. Gibbs

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  1. A. J. Gibbs
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  2. A. M. Mackenzie
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Correspondence to A. J. Gibbs.

Additional information

“The hypothesis is proposed that all plant viruses in Australia were introduced since European settlement of the Australia continent toward the end of the eighteenth century”, N. H. White 1973.

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Gibbs, A.J., Mackenzie, A.M., Wei, KJ. et al. The potyviruses of Australia. Arch Virol 153, 1411–1420 (2008). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00705-008-0134-6

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00705-008-0134-6

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