Characteristics of Cucumber mosaic virus isolated from Zea mays in Korea

A virus causing mottle and stunt symptom on Zea mays was observed around Ulleng-do, Korea and identified as Cucumber mosaic virus (CMV-ZM) based upon biological, serological, and molecular characteristics. In host range studies, the CMV-ZM isolate produced local lesions on Datura stramonium, Vigna unguiculata, Cucurbita moschata, Chenopodium amaranticolor, Ch. quinoa, whereas this isolate produced systemic mosaic on Nicotiana tabacum cv. 'Xanthi-nc', Capsicum annuum, Solanum lycopersicum, Solanum melongena, Cucurbita pepo, and Z. mays. In addition, chlorotic local rings on inoculated leaves along with severe mosaic, malformation, and fern leaf symptoms on upper systemic leaves were shown in N. glutinosa plants. Complete nucleotide sequences of each genomic RNA segment was determined and compared to those of the other CMV strains. Comparison of the nucleotide sequence of la open reading frame (ORF) revealed approximately 89.2-92.4% sequence identity with each CMV subgroup IA and IB strain, while showing only 78% sequence identity with CMV subgroup II. Nucleotide sequence analysis of RNA2 ORFs revealed 85.3-97.6% sequence identity with subgroup I. In ORFs of RNA3, levels of nucleotide sequence identities were higher than 92-99.2% with CMV subgroup I and lower than 82% with CMV isolates of subgroup II. These results suggest that CMV-ZM isolate is more closely related to subgroup I than subgroup II and therefore, CMV-ZM isolate might be classified into as CMV subgroup I based on biological and molecular analysis.