Plant Pathology (2006) 55, 286 Doi: 10.1111/j.1365-3059.2005.01273.x 286 © 2006 BSPP Blackwell Publishing, Ltd. Occurrence of Sweet potato leaf curl virus in Sicily R. W. Briddon*, S. E. Bull and I. D. Bedford Department of Disease and Stress Biology, John Innes Centre, Colney Lane, Norwich NR4 7UH, UK The Ipomoea-infecting begomoviruses are an evolutionary curiosity. Two such viruses have been identified: Sweet potato leaf curl virus (SPLCV; Lotrakul & Valverde, 1999) and Sweet potato leaf curl Georgia virus (SPLCGV), originating from the USA (SPLCV and SPLCGV) and Spain [SPLCV-Ipo, previously known as Ipomoea yellow vein virus (Banks et al., 1999) but now recognized as a distinct strain of SPLCV]. These viruses are monopartite (no DNA B or DNA β component has been identified for any of the viruses), have a genome organization typical of Old World begomo- viruses, and are distinct from all other begomoviruses. Cuttings of Ipomoea indica (Convolvulaceae) showing yellow vein symptoms were collected in the vicinity of Catania, Sicily in 1999. A full-length clone of the begomovirus associated with the disease was produced by PCR-mediated amplification with a pair of primers abutting at their 5′ ends and spanning (for SPLCV-Ipo) nucleotides 697–758 (virion-sense primer 5′ -GGATCCGCTGAACTTTGGCCAGATCTTC- ACTATG-3′; complementary-sense primer 5′-GGATCCTTATTGGGC- CTTGTATCACGAATCAACC-3′). These were designed to the sequence of SPLCV-Ipo (EMBL accession number AJ132548) and span a unique BamHI restriction endonuclease site. The full-length PCR product was cloned into the T-Easy vector (Promega) and the sequence of a single clone was determined. This sequence (accession no. AJ586885) is 2830 nucleotides long and shows the arrangement of genes typical of the genomes (or DNA A components) of Old World begomoviruses. The virus is closely related to other begomoviruses isolated from Ipomoea spp., including SPLCGV (84·2% nucleotide sequence identity), SPLCV (89·9%) and SPLCV-Ipo (90·9%), with which it clusters in phylogenetic analyses. We conclude that the isolate originating from Sicily is a strain of SPLCV which is provisionally designated SPLCV-[Sicily]. The occurrence of this begomovirus species in Sicily indicates that its geographical range extends further across the Mediterranean basin than previously identified. References Banks G, Bedford ID, Markham PG, 1999. A novel geminivirus of Ipomoea indica (Convolvulaceae) from southern Spain. Plant Disease 83, 486. Lotrakul P, Valverde RA, 1999. Cloning of a DNA A-like component of sweet potato leaf curl virus: nucleotide sequence and phylogenetic relationships. Molecular Plant Pathology Online www.bspp.org.uk/mppol/1999/ 0422lotrakul / index.htm *E-mail: robbriddon@nibge.org Accepted 10 May 2005 at www.bspp.org.uk/ndr where figures relating to this paper can be viewed. Plant Pathology (2006) 55, 286 Doi: 10.1111/j.1365-3059.2005.01300.x Blackwell Publishing Ltd First report of a begomovirus associated with the common weed Jatropha gossypifolia in Jamaica M. E. Roye a *, A. M. Collins a and D. P. Maxwell b a Biotechnology Centre, University of the West Indies, Mona, Kingston 7, Jamaica; and b Department of Plant Pathology, University of Wisconsin-Madison, 1630 Linden Drive, Madison WI 53706, USA Plants of the common weed Jatropha gossypifolia with yellow mosaic symptoms typical of geminivirus infection are often found growing among crops such as tomato, bean and pepper in Jamaica. These crops are known to be hosts to several begomoviruses in Jamaica (Roye et al., 1999). Leaf tissue of J. gossypifolia plants showing these symptoms was obtained from several agricultural sites, and genomic DNA was extracted using a modified Dellaporta method (Rojas et al., 1993). Low-stringency hybrid- ization using a digoxygenin-labelled DNA-A probe of Bean golden yellow mosaic virus (BGYMV) from Jamaica produced positive signals for all 10 samples tested. PCR using degenerate primers PAC1v, 1978/PAV1c715 and PBC1v 2039/PBV1c800 (Rojas et al., 1993) amplified c. 1·3 kb fragments of the begomovirus DNA-A and DNA-B, respectively. The fragments obtained from both DNA-A and DNA-B were cloned and sequenced: 1419 nt for DNA-A (accession number AF324410) and 1410 nt for DNA-B (AF324411) were obtained. A similarity search (blastn) for the DNA-A sequence showed that it was most similar (90%) to Tobacco leaf rugose virus from Cuba over 870 nt, but showed no significant simi- larity to DNA sequences in the database for the DNA-B. Nucleotide sequence analysis of DNA-A and DNA-B fragments revealed that they shared an intergenic region of 188 nt that was 95% identical. Further DNA-A sequence analysis with several begomoviruses from the Western Hemisphere indicated that, over the entire 1·4 kb fragment, the virus was most similar to Sida golden mosaic virus from Jamaica (80%) and Tobacco leaf rugose virus (79%). The weed virus was distinct from several weed- infecting begomoviruses from the Latin American region, including begomoviruses associated with Sida, Rhychosia and Macroptilium spp. This is the first report of a begomovirus associated with J. gossypifolia in Jamaica, which has been tentatively named Jatropha mosaic virus (JMV). Acknowledgements The authors would like to thank The Principal’s New Initiative Pro- gramme at the University of the West Indies, Mona for funds to do this research. References Rojas MR, Gilbertson RL, Russell DR, Maxwell DP, 1993. Use of degenerate primers in the polymerase chain reaction to detect whitefly-transmitted geminiviruses. Plant Disease 77, 340–7. Roye ME, Wernecke ME, McLaughlin WA, Nakhla MK, Maxwell DP, 1999. Tomato dwarf leaf curl virus, a new bipartite geminivirus associated with tomatoes and peppers in Jamaica and mixed infection with tomato yellow leaf curl virus. Plant Pathology 48, 370–8. *E-mail: marcia.roye@uwimona.edu.jm Accepted 27 June 2005 at www.bspp.org.uk/ndr where figures relating to this paper can be viewed.