Detection and Phylogenetic Analysis of Iranian Beet Mosaic Virus Isolates Based on the Viral Coat Protein Gene

In this study incidence of Beet mosaic virus (BtMV) was assessed in sugar beet fields in Razavi Khorasan, North Khorasan and Alborz provinces and to perform phylogenetic analysis of Iranian BtMV isolates and to study the phylogenetic relationship among them with other reported BtMV isolates, a part of the viral genome consists of NIb and coat protein genes was sequenced. To do this, RNA was extracted from ELISA positive samples and Reverse Transcriptase Polymerase Chain Reaction (RT-PCR) was performed by specific designed primers and amplified DNA fragments were cloned in PTZ57R / T plasmid and sequenced. The NIb and coat protein (CP) were aligned with other sequences available in GenBank. Then, percent equity matrix and evolutionary parameters were obtained. Phylogenetic tree was drawn and recombination analyses were performed. Based on the phylogenetic tree, BtMV isolates were divided into two groups, China, Slovakia and Australia (Euroasia) isolates were placed in a same group and American isolate was located in another group. Results showed that the Iranian isolates were placed in a separate cluster in the Euroasia group. This is the first report of partial sequence of Iranian BtMV genome.