First report of sida yellow vein Madurai virus infecting Lisianthus (Eustoma russellianum)

Lisianthus (Eustoma russellianum) is one of the emerging cut flower crops in international flower market quickly ranked in top ten cut flowers worldwide. Despite its rising popularity, studies relating to the identification and characterization of viral diseases affecting it are lacking from India. Thus, the present study was focused on identification and characterization of virus in lisianthus plants samples collected from Vensai Floritech, Narasihmanahalli village, Tubagere hobli, Doddaballapur taluk, Bengaluru rural district, Karnataka state, India exhibiting symptoms similar to begomoviruses infections. Association of the begomovirus with sample was confirmed by PCR using begomovirus specific primers which resulted in the expected amplicon (~ 1.2 kb). Further, whole-genome amplification was done by rolling circle amplification (RCA) for one representative sample (LIS-1). The amplified RCA product was cloned, sequenced and analyzed. The phylogenetic and nucleotide (nt) sequence analysis revealed that the begomovirus associated with lisianthus plants showed the maximum nt identity of 91.0% with sida yellow vein Madurai virus (SIYVMV-TN:OM141480) infecting a weed, Sida cordata, reported from Tamil Nadu, India, which is geographically close to Karnataka. Based on species demarcation criteria for begomoviruses, the collected isolate is identified as a strain of sida yellow vein Madurai virus associated with leaf curl of lisianthus from India and proposed the name “Sida yellow vein Madurai virus -[India:Karnataka:Doddaballapura:Lisianthus:2023]” and designated as SIYVMV-[IN:Kar:Dod:Lis:23]. Further, recombination analysis revealed a single intra-specific recombination event in the genomic region. Hence, this study provides a one more evidence of expanding host range for begomoviruses in India.