Abstract: Cotton leaf curl Multan virus（CLCuMuV），an important whitefly-transmitted geminivirus，was first reported in China in 2006 and the epidemics of the virus caused devastating losses to local horticultural and economical crops in recent years. As V2 was reported essential for virus infection for many begomoviruses，to clarify the subcellular localization of V2 encoded by CLCuMuV，the V2 gene of a Jiangsu isolate of CLCuMuV from the Hibiscus rosa-sinensis，was amplified and cloned. Subsequently V2 was cloned into a 35S:YFP vector to obtain YFP tagged V2（V2-YFP）and transiently expressed in the Nicotiana benthamiana leaves by Agrobacterium infiltration. The subcellular localization of V2 was observed by confocal laser scanning microscope and the result showed that there was relatively strong GFP fluorescence signal around the nucleus and at the cell periphery（cytoplasm），and some punctate fluorescent bodies were also observed in the cytoplasm. The expression of V2 protein（fused with YFP）in the infiltrated N. benthamiana leaves was confirmed by RT-PCR and Western blotting. These results demonstrated that the V2 protein encoded by CLCuMuV was localized around the nucleus and at the cell periphery（cytoplasm），and V2 protein could form aggregates in the cytoplasm as well.

Key words: Hibiscus rosa-sinensis, Cotton leaf curl Multan virus, V2 protein, subcellular localization