Molecular detection and characterization of yellow mosaic virus (ymv) infecting blackgram (Vigna mungo L.) in Karnataka with the aid of coat protein (cp) gene

Yellow mosaic disease of blackgram (Vigna mungo L.) was noticed in southern dry zone of Karnataka during 2015–2016 with maximum incidence (60%) at Mandya. The observed symptoms, consisting of scattered bright yellow spots, yellowing of veins and entire leaves were suggestive of infection with a begomovirus. To characterize the virus, coat protein (CP) gene specific primers were employed. The amplification of the targeted gene of the causal virus was yielded DNA fragmentsize of ∼900 bp. The amplified product was sequenced and sequence data revealed that the CP gene of the begomovirus under study shared 84% to 95%similarity with other Mungbean yellow mosaic virus (MYMV) and Horsegram yellow mosaic virus (HgYMV) isolates at the nucleotide level. The present study virus isolate shared maximum nucleotide sequence similarity level (95%) with MYMV infecting blackgram (KC911722), mothbean (DQ 865201) and greengram (KP 455992) isolates from Southern India. Further, phylogenetic analysis is strongly confirmed that the blackgramyellow mosaic virus isolate of Mandya is a strain of MYMV group, rather than MYMIV and HgYMV. Overall, the results of present study indicate that CP region is efficient enough to provide simple and reliable method for early detection and characterization of YMV in legumes, which would help to design proper management strategies.