Genetic variability of the movement and coat protein genes of Grapevine fanleaf virus isolates from Italy

Abstract

Grapevine fanleaf virus (GFLV), a nematode-transmitted virus belonging to the genus Nepovirus, is the major pathogen responsible for fanleaf degeneration, one of the most widespread and damaging viral diseases of grapevine. The virus is characterized by a genome constituted by two single positive sense RNAs (RNA1 and RNA2), coding for two polyproteins. Here we investigated the genetic variability of the movement and coat protein genes (2B(MP) and 2C(CP)) of Italian GFLV isolates by sequencing analyses. The presence of high molecular heterogeneity between our isolates suggests that GFLV comprises a family of sequence variants.