BRIEF REPORT Beet western yellows virus infects the carnivorous plant Nepenthes mirabilis Sissi Miguel 1 • Flore Biteau 2,3 • Benoit Mignard 1 • Armelle Marais 4 • Thierry Candresse 4 • Se ´bastien Theil 4 • Fre ´de ´ric Bourgaud 2,3 • Alain Hehn 2,3 Received: 18 January 2016 / Accepted: 7 May 2016 Ó Springer-Verlag Wien 2016 Abstract Although poleroviruses are known to infect a broad range of higher plants, carnivorous plants have not yet been reported as hosts. Here, we describe the first polerovirus naturally infecting the pitcher plant Nepenthes mirabilis. The virus was identified through bioinformatic analysis of NGS transcriptome data. The complete viral genome sequence was assembled from overlapping PCR fragments and shown to share 91.1 % nucleotide sequence identity with the US isolate of beet western yellows virus (BWYV). Further analysis of other N. mirabilis plants revealed the presence of additional BWYV isolates dif- fering by several insertion/deletion mutations in ORF5. Keywords Polerovirus Á BWYV Á Carnivorous plant Á Nepenthes Á Transcriptome Á NGS Introduction Poleroviruses (family Luteoviridae) are positive-sense, single-stranded RNA viruses that are restricted to phloem tissue and transmitted by aphids in a persistent non-propagative manner [1]. Their genome harbours six open reading frames (ORF0-ORF5), in addition to a short 5’ untranslated region (UTR), a 3’-UTR without a tRNA-like structure or poly(A) and a ca. 200-nucleotides long intergenic non-coding region (NCR) between ORF2 and ORF3 [2]. According to several studies, recombi- nation has played a major role in the emergence of beet- infecting poleroviruses [3]. Hauser et al. [4] demon- strated that the coat protein (CP) amino acid (aa) sequence is highly conserved, whereas the P0 sequences, which are involved in host specificity and symptom expression, are more variable. Based on biological observations, serological data and molecular analyses, viruses formerly classified as BWYV have been divided into four species. 1) Beet western yellows virus, whose members have a wide host range including beet; 2) Beet mild yellowing virus, whose members are able to infect Chenopodiaceae, C. bursa-pastoris, Senecio vulgaris, sugar beet and spinach; 3) Beet chlorosis virus, whose members do not infect traditional indicator plants such as Capsella bursa-pastoris but infect sugar beet and Chenopodium capitatum; and 4) Turnip yellows virus, whose members do not infect beet but have a broad host range including C. bursa-pastoris and a large number of plants belonging to the family Brassicaceae. Nepenthes spp. are carnivorous plants characterized by pitcher-shaped traps. They are robust and resistant to pathogen attack, although their pitchers have been descri- bed to be colonized by a large range of organisms [5–7]. Since carnivorous plants have no agronomic value, they GenBank accession numbers: KU521324, KU521325, KU521326. Electronic supplementary material The online version of this article (doi:10.1007/s00705-016-2891-y) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users. & Alain Hehn Alain.Hehn@univ-lorraine.fr 1 Plant Advanced Technologies SA, 13, Rue du bois de la Champelle, 54500 Vandœuvre-le `s-Nancy, France 2 INRA UMR 1121, Laboratoire Agronomie et Environnement, 2 avenue de la fore ˆt de Haye TSA 40602, 54518 Vandœuvre-le `s-Nancy, France 3 Laboratoire Agronomie et Environnement, Universite ´ de Lorraine UMR 1121, 2 avenue de la fore ˆt de Haye TSA 40602, 54518 Vandœuvre-le `s-Nancy, France 4 UMR Biologie du Fruit et Pathologie, INRA, Universite ´ de Bordeaux, 71 Avenue, Edouard Bourlaux, CS 20032, 33882 Villenave d’Ornon Cedex, France 123 Arch Virol DOI 10.1007/s00705-016-2891-y