Molecular diversity of poleroviruses infecting cucurbit crops in four countries reveals the presence of members of six distinct species

When 66 cucurbit samples with yellowing symptoms from fields in Mali, the Philippines, Thailand and Uzbekistan were screened by RT-PCR using universal polerovirus primers, 21 were identified as harboring polerovirus RNA. When these 21 samples were screened with specific primers for the known cucurbit-infecting poleroviruses, suakwa aphid-borne yellows virus and a recombinant strain of cucurbit aphid-borne yellows virus were detected for the first time in the Philippines and Thailand. However, seven polerovirus-positive samples did not react with any of the known species-specific primers. Sequencing of 1.4-kb universal polerovirus RT-PCR products revealed the presence of two poleroviruses that had not been described previously. These viruses, from Mali and Thailand, were provisionally named pepo aphid-borne yellows virus and luffa aphid-borne yellows virus, respectively.