Molecular Detection and Partial Characterization of Coat Protein Gene of Moth Bean Yellow Mosaic Virus (MBYMV) from Northern Karnataka

Background: Moth bean (Vigna aconitifolia (Jaq.) Marechal) is characterized as one of the most drought hardy, short duration, annual legume crop. It is mainly grown in Northern districts of Karnataka. Moth bean crop suffers from many diseases viz., yellow mosaic, bacterial blight, root rot, anthracnose and powdery mildew. Moth bean is targeted by YMV which causes severe damage to grain and fodder yields. Since not much work has been carried out on characterization of moth bean yellow mosaic virus in Northern Karnataka, an attempt was made to partially characterize coat protein gene of Moth Bean Yellow Mosaic Virus (MBYMV). Methods: The total genomic DNA was extracted from leaf tissues of healthy moth bean plants and yellow mosaic virus infected plants utilizing by modified CTAB method. Specific primers for yellow mosaic viruses were tried to amplify coat protein region of MBYMV. Result: Moth bean leaf samples showing yellow mosaic symptoms gave positive results with MYMV specific primer pairs (MYMV-CP-F/MYMV-CP-R) and yielded amplicons of ~1000 bp. The 1000 bp PCR products were directly sequenced and assembled. Phylogenetic tree based on full length coat protein gene sequence of MBYMV with other geminiviruses sequences downloaded from NCBI Genbank formed three major clusters of MYMV, HgYMV and MYMIV. The present MBYMV isolate formed unique cluster with MYMV group.