Partial Molecular Characterization of Some Grapevine fanleaf virus Isolates from North-east of Iran

Five isolates of Grapevine fanleaf virus (GFLV) collected from two viticultural regions in the north-east of Iran were characterized based on coat protein (CP) gene sequences. The CP gene of all isolates was amplified by reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) using its specific primers, yielding a 1500bp amplicon. The nucleotide sequences for these isolates were obtained and compared with the CPI region of seven isolates from north-west Iran and also with some other exotic GFLV-CP sequences available in the GenBank. Analysis of our data revealed that the north-east Iranian sequences have 83.7–87.5% of homology with the CPI regions of exotic GFLV isolates, and 83.0–87.1% homology with other isolates from north-west Iran. High nucleotide homology (98.6–100%) was found among the GFLV isolates sequences obtained in this study. The deduced proteins obtained for our five isolates were 92.0–96.0% identical to other sequences. The generated phylogenetic tree revealed a clustering of GFLV isolates distributed over the world in one branch, and the Iranian isolates in other branches.