First report of Chilli leaf curl India virus (ChiLCINV) infecting Stachytarpheta jamaicensis in India

Abstract

Blue snakeweed (Stachytarpheta jamaicensis) exhibiting symptoms of virus infection such as crinkling, yellowing, mottling, reduction in leaf size and downward curling were observed during disease survey in Pune, Maharashtra, India in 2021. The presence of a begomovirus in the infected plants was confirmed by PCR assay using universal primers and sequence analysis. BLASTn analysis of the sequence of PCR product revealed that it shared 95.55% identity with Chilli leaf curl India virus (ChiLCINV) isolates. In the phylogenetic analysis, the sequence clustered with ChiLCINV isolates reported from various hosts. To our knowledge, this is the first report of a begomovirus (ChiLCINV) infecting S. jamaicensis in India.

Keywords:

• Begomovirus
• Stachytarpheta jamaicensis
• leaf curl disease
• occurrence
• India

Acknowledgements

The authors wish to thank the Director, ICAR – IARI, New Delhi and Head, ICAR-IARI, Regional Station, Pune for providing lab facilities.

Disclosure statement

The authors have no conflicts of interest to declare that are relevant to the content of this article.

Author contributions

AV carried out survey and sample collection. AV did the PCR assay for the plant samples. ST and AV analysed the sequence and submitted it to GenBank. AV prepared the manuscript. RV and ST helped in editing the manuscript.