Characterization of Cucumber mosaic virus infecting Indian long pepper (Piper longum L.) and betel vine (Piper betle L.) in India

Natural infection of Cucumber mosaic virus (CMV) in Indian long pepper (Piper longum L.) and betel vine (Piper betle L.) was detected by reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR). The coat protein gene sequences of CMV infecting these hosts were amplified. The resulting amplicons were cloned and sequenced. In both the cases coat protein gene consisted of 657 nucleotides, potentially encoding for a protein of 218 amino acids. The sequence comparisons revealed 100% identity of these isolates both at amino acid and nucleotide levels, suggesting a common origin. Sequence analyses with various CMV isolates showed that CMV infecting banana and black pepper in India to be more close to isolates from Indian long pepper and betel vine. Based on the coat protein gene sequence identities, it was concluded that CMV infecting both Indian long pepper and betel vine belong to the subgroup I. This is the first report on molecular characterization of CMV infecting Indian long pepper and betel vine.