Abstract
Maize lethal necrosis disease (MLND) is currently threatening maize production in a large area of East Africa. Synergistic infections of Maize chlorotic mottle virus (MCMV) and members of the Potyviridae family are known to elicit MLND. Metaviromics studies of plant viruses have allowed for the discovery of novel viral diversity, with a number of these viruses having recently been shown to co-occur with MCMV and Potyviruses. However, their contribution to the expression of disease symptoms still requires extensive research. In a survey for viruses associated with maize in Tanzania, 35 samples were sequenced using an RNA-tag-seq metaviromics approach. Bioinformatic analysis of assembled reads yielded two contigs (5.8 and 2.7 kbp) that shared sequence homology with RNA1 and RNA2 of the dsRNA Japanese holly fern mottle virus (JHFMoV) (genus: Pteridovirus) from a single sample collected in the Arusha region. RNA1 encodes for a polyprotein product containing putative viral methyltransferase, helicase and polymerase domains. RNA2 contains three open reading frames (ORFs), one of which encodes for a putative movement protein, while the remaining two encode for putative products with no known function. The tentative name Maize-associated pteridovirus (MaPV) has been proposed for the virus in this study.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
References
Adams, I. P., Miano, D. W., Kinyua, Z. M., Wangai, A., Kimani, E., Phiri, N., Reeder, R., Harju, V., Glover, R., Hany, U., Souza-Richards, R., Deb Nath, P., Nixon, T., Fox, A., Barnes, A., Smith, J., Skelton, A., Thwaites, R., Mumford, R., & Boonham, N. (2013). Use of next-generation sequencing for the identification and characterization of Maize chlorotic mottle virus and Sugarcane mosaic virus causing maize lethal necrosis in Kenya. Plant Pathology, 62, 741–749.
Adams, I.P., Braidwood, L.A., Stomeo, F., Phiri, N., Uwumukiza, B., Feyissa, B., Mahuku, G., et al. (2017). Characterising maize viruses associated with maize lethal necrosis symptoms in sub Saharan Africa. bioRxiv https://doi.org/10.1101/161489.
Altschul, S. F., Gish, W., Miller, W., Myers, E. W., & Lipman, D. J. (1990). Basic local alignment search tool. Journal of Molecular Biology, 215, 403–410.
Deng, T. C., Chou, C. M., Chen, C. T., Tsai, C. H., & Lin, F. C. (2014). First report of Maize chlorotic mottle virus on sweet corn in Taiwan. Plant Disease, 98, 1748.
Hall, T. A. (1999). BioEdit: A user-friendly biological sequence alignment editor and analysis program for windows 95/98/NT. Nucleic Acids Symposium Series, 41, 95–98.
Kumar, S., Stecher, G., & Tamura, K. (2016). MEGA7: Molecular evolutionary genetics analysis version 7.0 for bigger datasets. Molecular Biology and Evolution, 33(7), 1870–1874.
Menzel, P., Ng, K. L., & Krogh, A. (2016). Fast and sensitive taxonomic classification for metagenomics with kaiju. Nature Communications, 7, 11257.
Niblett, C., & Claflin, L. (1978). Corn lethal necrosis, a new virus disease of corn in Kansas. Plant Disease Report, 62, 15–19.
Quito-Avila, D. F., Alvarez, R. A., & Mendoza, A. A. (2016). Occurrence of maize lethal necrosis virus in Ecuador: A disease without boundaries? European Journal of Plant Pathology, 146, 705–710.
Rancurel, C., Khosravi, M., Dunker, A. K., Romero, P. R., & Karlin, D. (2009). Overlapping genes produce proteins with unusual sequence properties and offer insight into de novo protein creation. Journal of Virology, 83(20), 10719–10736.
Read, D. A., Featherstone, J., Rees, D. J. G., Thompson, G. D., Roberts, R., Flett, B. C., et al. (2018). First report of maize yellow mosaic virus (MaYMV) on maize (Zea mays) in Tanzania. Journal of Plant Pathology, 101, 203. https://doi.org/10.1007/s42161-018-0152-5.
Shishkin, A. A., Giannoukos, G., Kucukural, A., Ciulla, D., Busby, M., Surka, C., & Chen, J. (2015). Simultaneous generation of many RNA-seq libraries in a single reaction. Nature Methods, 12, 323–325.
Valverde, R. A., & Sabanadzovic, S. (2009). A novel plant virus with unique properties infecting Japanese holly fern. Journal of General Virology, 90, 2542–2549.
Wamaitha, M. J., Nigam, D., Maina, S., Stomeo, F., Wangai, A., Njuguna, J. N., Holton, T. A., Wanjala, B. W., Wamalwa, M., Lucas, T., Djikeng, A., & Garcia-Ruiz, H. (2018). Metagenomic analysis of viruses associated with maize lethal necrosis in Kenya. Virology Journal, 15, 90.
Wangai, A. W., Redinbaugh, M. G., Kinyua, Z. M., Mahuku, G., Sheets, K., & Jeffers, D. (2012). First report of Maize chlorotic mottle virus and maize lethal necrosis in Kenya. Plant Disease, 96, 1582.
Wheeler, D. L., Church, D. M., Federhen, S., Lash, A. E., Madden, T. L., Pontius, J. U., et al. (2003). Database resources of the National Center for biotechnology. Nucleic Acids Research, 31(1), 28–33.
White, E. J., Venter, M., Hiten, N. F., & Burger, J. T. (2008). Modified cetyltrimethylammonium bromide method improves robustness and versatility: The benchmark for plant RNA extraction. Biotechnology Journal, 3, 1424–1428.
Xie, L., Zhang, J., Wang, Q., Meng, C., Hong, J., & Zhou, X. (2011). Characterization of Maize chlorotic mottle virus associated with maize lethal necrosis disease in China. Journal of Phytopathology, 159(3), 191–193.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Ethics declarations
The manuscript constitutes original research and has not been previously published. All authors have agreed to the submission of the manuscript, which complies with the ethical standards of the journal.
Conflict of interest
The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Read, D.A., Featherston, J., Rees, D.J.G. et al. Characterization and detection of maize-associated pteridovirus (MaPV), infecting maize (Zea mays) in the Arusha region of Tanzania. Eur J Plant Pathol 154, 1165–1170 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10658-019-01703-4
Accepted:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10658-019-01703-4