CHARACTERIZATION OF A NOVEL SUGARCANE MASTREVIRUS AND MAIZE STREAK VIRUS-A FROM SUGARCANE

Sugarcane and maize plants showing symptoms typical of those described for the so-called ‘‘African streak viruses’’ (AfSVs) were encountered during field surveys conducted from February 2014 to July 2015 to document viruses infecting both crops across the northern guinea savannah region of Nigeria. As part of this study, two categories of complete mastrevirus-like genome sequences were obtained from nine samples (maize = 2; sugarcane = 7). A BLASTN analysis of the of the full length genomes of the first sequence category (2,687 nt each; maize = 2 & sugarcane = 2) revealed 97 to 99% identities with global isolates of the A-strain of maize streak virus (MSV-A) indicating that sugarcane may also serve as a reservoir host to MSV-A. Analysis of the complete genomes belonging to the second sequence category (2,757 nt each; sugarcane = 5) showed that they shared 76 to 79% identities with their closest relatives among currently known mastreviruses, thus indicating that they represent sequences of a novel mastrevirus. Both sequence categories shared 61-62% sequence identities with each other. Further analysis revealed that the novel sugarcane-infecting virus, tentatively named as sugarcane chlorotic streak virus (SCSV), arose out of a putative interspecific recombination event involving two grass-infecting mastreviruses, eragrostis streak virus and urochloa streak virus as putative parental sequences. SCSV disease incidence was as high as 80 % in some fields and infected canes tend to have shorter internodes. The results of this study add to the repertoire of diverse AfSVs present in cereal and sugarcane mixed cropping landscapes in the northern guinea savannah region of Nigeria with implications for disease epidemiology.

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