Abstract:

Chilli veinal mottle virus（ChiVMV）is one of main pathogen causing pepper virus disease in Guangdong Province，China. To ascertain the molecular characterization of ChiVMV isolate Guangdong（ChiVMV-GD），the whole genome sequence of ChiVMV-GD was cloned by RT-PCR and RACE amplification. In addition to the poly（A）tail，the length of ChiVMV-GD genome was 9 721 nt and encoded a 350.44 kD polyprotein（coordinate 167–9 436 nt）. The 5′-untranslated region（5′-UTR）and 3'-untranslated region（3′-UTR）contained 166 and 285 nt，respectively. The 5′-end contained a viral genome-linked protein（VPg）. The 3′-end contained a poly（A）tail. The whole genome sequence of ChiVMV-GD shared 79.1% to 96.9% nucleotide sequence identities with other isolates of ChiVMV deposited in the GenBank database，with the highest nucleotide sequence identities to the isolate Hainan（GenBank accession number：GQ981316.1）at 96.9%. Phylogenetic analysis of ChiVMV-GD and the other 11 isolates of ChiVMV indicated that it clustered with the Hainan isolate to form a unique clade. This result showed that ChiVMV-GD had the closest relationship with ChiVMV Hainan isolate. This paper is the first report the molecular characterization of ChiVMV infecting pepper in Guangdong Province，China.

Key words: pepper, Chilli veinal mottle virus, Guangdong isolate, molecular characterization