Identification of Tobacco Leaf Curl Virus Infecting Lonicera japonica, an Ornamental Plant Common in Japan

A begomovirus, tentatively named Tobacco leaf curl Japan virus-JpU (TbLCJV-JpU), was isolated from Lonicera japonica (Honeysuckle) Plants Grown in Utsunomiya showing veinal chlorosis symptoms. The TbLCJV-JpU genome with 2,761 nt showed a highest identity with TbLCJV-Jp3 and was also close to TbLCJV and as well to TbLCJV-Jp2. The overall nt identity with TbLCJV-Jp3 amounted to 92.94%, while the identities in encoded amino acid (aa) sequence of Coat Protein (CP) and putative products of AC1 and AV2 ORFs were as high as 98.05, 92.54 and 93.96%, respectively. Low sequence identities were observed in the Intergenic Region (IR) of TbLCJV-JpU as compared with TbLCJV, Ageratum yellow vein Taiwan virus-Kochi isolate and Honeysuckle yellow vein virus-Kagoshima isolates. Recombinations were detected in the 5´end (2650 to 2761) and extreme 3´ portion of the genome (220 to 350). Both regions demonstrated high identities with AYVTV-Kochi and HSYVV-Kagoshima. To the best of our knowledge this is the first report of isolation of TbLCJV from L. japonica.