Genetic Diversity of Chilean Isolates of Grapevine Leafroll-Associated Virus 2

Abstract

Grapevine leafroll-associated virus 2 (GLRaV-2) is prevalent in Chile but no information is available on the genetic variability of Chilean isolates. Three genomic regions, i.e. a partial RNA-dependent RNA polymerase (RdRp) gene, the complete coat protein (CP) gene and a partial p19 gene fragment, of eleven Chilean isolates were used for phylogenetic analyses. The genetic identity among Chilean isolates was high (73.7 to 100% for CP-p19 region and 78.7 to 99.8 for RdRp region) and the isolates clustered into four (RG, PN, 93/955 and BD) of the five recognized GLRaV- 2 lineages. The RdRp and CP-p19 nucleotide sequences of isolate 6139-LR2-PN showed different phylogenetic relationship, suggesting its recombinant nature. To our knowledge, this is the first genetic analysis of Chilean isolates of GLRaV-2.