Journal of Agricultural, Life and Environmental Sciences ISSN:2233-8322(Print) 2508-870X(Online)

Cucumber mosaic virus-Sp isolate (CMV-Sp) is isolated from Solanum pseudocapsicum, also called the Jerusalem Cherry. The responses of host plants to CMV-Sp were similar to CMV-Fny. CMV-Sp induced mosaic-like symptoms on Capsicum annuum ‘Bukang’, whereas, CMV-Fny did not systemically infect the plant. To analyze the nucleotide sequence of CMV-Sp, we conducted a complete genome sequencing and multiple alignment analysis, together with other CMV isolates. The results show that CMV-Sp had the highest homologies with CMV pepper isolates. In addition, the sequences of five ORFs (1a, 2a, 2b, movement protein, and coat protein) of CMV-Sp were compared to six CMV pepper isolates. The 1a, 2a, MP, and CP genes of CMV-Sp showed more than 98.3%, 98.8%, 93.2% and 96.8%, respectively identity with CMV pepper isolates at the amino acid level. The 2b protein gene of CMV-Sp showed less than 97.3% identity with other CMV pepper isolates. To confirm the genetic variation of 2b, we aligned and compared the amino acid sequences between 2b proteins. It was found that 2b protein was specifically changed from the conserved domain (²²KKQRRR²⁷) of the nuclear localization sequence 1 (NLS1) to ²²KKQKQR²⁷. Based on host response and sequence analysis, biological properties of CMV-Sp were tested on various pepper cultivars with CMV-Fny (P0 type) and CMV-CaCh1 (P1 type). CMV-Sp and CMV-CaCh1 systemically infected all pepper cultivars, in contrast to CMV-Fny. These results have led to the conclusion that genetic and biological properties of CMV-Sp are closely related to CMV pepper isolates.