EMERGENCE OF BEGOMOVIRUSES IN CUBA

Begomoviruses are plant pathogens that caused important losses to crops of economic interest in tropical and subtropical regions in the last decade. In Cuba, nine begomoviruses have been identified affecting tomato, beans, tobacco, pepper, squash, potato and weeds of different botanical families. The intergenic sequence (IR) and the N-terminal regions of the replication associated protein (Rep) of begomoviruses identified in Cuba were analysed using sequence data of gene collections (GeneBank). Statistical programs were used for the alignments, phylogenetic analysis and searching of significant recombination fragments. The detection of possible recombination events was carried out for p=0.05, based on 10000 permutations. Eleven IR recombination event sites between Macroptilium Yellow Mosaic Virus (MaYMV) and Tobacco Leaf Rugose Virus (TLRV), and 15 between Tomato Mottle Taino Virus (TMoTV) and Dicliptera Yellow Mosaic Virus (DiYMoV) were found. Sixteen recombination event sites between MaYMV and Sida Golden Yellow Vein Virus (SiGYVV) were also found in the Rep region. Jatropha Mosaic Virus (JMV) from Jatropha gossipifolia and Tomato Yellow Leaf Curl Virus TYLCV-IL(CU) from tomato and pepper showed base sequences in the alignments that were present in all the polymorphic sites detected and homologous to monomorphic sites. TMoTV and DiYMoV showed 3 and 4 polymorphic sites in the Rep N-terminal region, respectively. All these sites constitute evidences of old recombination events destroyed during the evolution, and they may define the characteristics of the begomovirus species identified.