Molecular comparative analysis of component 1 (DNA-R) of an Egyptian isolate of banana bunchy top nanovirus isolated from banana aphid (Pentalonia nigronervosa)

We are reporting a molecular comparative analysis of component 1 BBTV-DNA-R of an Egyptian isolate of (BBTV) and 30 different geographical isolates. DNA was extracted from BBTV-infected adult banana aphids collected from El-Qalubia Governorate, Egypt. Using specific primers the BBTV-DNA-R was amplified, cloned into a prokaryote vector, sequenced and a molecular comparative analysis of BBTV-DNA-R of this study and some overseas isolates of BBTV-infected banana plants was determined. Results showed that the component 1 consists of 1108 nts and contains a sequence of 69 nts representing the CR-SL of 31 nts. A CR-M (90 nts) at the position (972–1062) characterized with GC-rich sequence from nts 76 to 90 (average of 80% G + C) was found. Alignment results of BBTV DNA-R confirmed the presence of a number of conserved regions in all isolates. Large ORF of 861 nts at position 102 to 962 in the virion sense were detected. The predicted protein of this ORF consisted of 286 amino acids and had a molecular weight of 33.8 kDa. The DNA-phylogenetic analysis showed a percent identity of 98.0 and 97.9 between BBTV DNA-R and isolates of Pakistan (isolate TJ1) and Australia (isolate V1), respectively. The similarities between the gene product of Egyptian BBTV DNA-R and the 30 overseas isolates ranged from 93.7 to 99.0%. Differences in phylogenetic trees based on the entire sequence of BBTV DNA-R, CR-M and amino acid sequences confirmed the existence of two taxonomic groups of BBTV and the Egyptian isolate belongs to the south pacific group.