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First Report of Occurrence of Papaya ring spot virus Infecting Papaya in Bangladesh

Papaya (Carica papaya L.) is an important fruit crop in Bangladesh. During surveys conducted in Dhaka and Mymensingh regions from April to June 2003, >50% of papaya plants were observed to have leaf mottling, mosaic and mild distortion, and water-soaked streaks on petioles and stem, which are typical symptoms of Papaya ring spot virus (PRSV) infection. Electron-microscopic examination of negatively stained leaf-dip preparations from 10 symptomatic samples revealed the association of flexuous virus particles that were decorated with polyclonal antibodies raised to an isolate from India (PRSV-D). The identity of PRSV associated with the papaya disease in Bangladesh was further confirmed by reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction and sequence analysis (2). By using PRSV specific primers (2), the 3′-terminal region comprising a part of the nuclear inclusion b gene, the coat protein (CP) gene, and the untranslated region were amplified and sequenced (GenBank Accession No. AY423557). The CP gene consisted of 286 amino acids and the conserved regions common to the genus Potyvirus, such as WCIEN and QMKAA, were present. Like all known PRSV sequences (1), a stretch of glutamic acid and lysine repeats (EK region) after the aphid transmission motif (DAG) also was present. Comparative CP amino acid sequence analyses revealed that the virus infecting papaya in Bangladesh, designated as PRSV-Bd, shared 89 to 92% identity with PRSV isolates from India and 88 to 93% identity with isolates from other parts of the world. To our knowledge, this is the first report of occurrence of PRSV infecting papaya in Bangladesh.

References: (1) M. F. Bateson et al. J. Gen. Virol. 83:2575, 2002. (2) R. K. Jain et al. Ann Appl. Biol. 132:413, 1998.