Abstract
The molecular characterization of bipartite geminiviruses infecting the common leguminous weed Macroptilium lathyroides was accomplished using polymerase chain reaction (PCR), deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) hybridization, and nucleotide sequence analysis. The predicted PCR-amplified fragments for DNA-A and DNA-B showed that M. lathyroides was infected with bipartite geminiviruses with a genome organization similar to other Western Hemisphere geminiviruses. Nucleotide sequence analysis showed that M. lathyroides from Jamaica was infected with two different viruses. Phylogenetic analysis of these macroptilium viruses from Jamaica and Western Hemisphere viruses, including three viruses from Jamaica indicated that macroptilium golden mosaic virus Jamaica strain 1 (MacGMV-JM1) was phylogenetically related to PYMV and SiGMV-JM, while the other virus, macroptilium golden mosaic virus Jamaica strain 2 (MacGMV-JM2) was closely related to two Jamaican viruses, TDLCV and WGMV. The results suggest that crop and weed geminiviruses from Jamaica are related but distinct, and that M. lathyroides is not host to previously described crop-infecting geminiviruses from Jamaica.
