Geographically distant isolates of the crinivirus Cucurbit yellow stunting disorder virus show very low genetic diversity in the coat protein gene

The population structure and genetic variation of Cucurbit yellow stunting disorder virus (CYSDV) isolates were estimated by single-strand conformation polymorphism and nucleotide sequence analyses of the CYSDV coat protein gene. Analysis of 71 isolates collected from Spain, Jordan, Turkey, Lebanon, Saudi Arabia and North America showed that, from a genetic viewpoint, these isolates could be divided into two diverged subpopulations: an Eastern subpopulation composed of Saudi Arabian isolates and a Western subpopulation containing the rest of the CYSDV isolates. The genetic variation within the Western subpopulation was very small (nucleotide identity >99%) in spite of the extensive and discontinuous geographical distribution and different years of collection. We also estimated the within-isolate genetic structure and variation of three CYSDV isolates by analysing 30 clones per isolate. Our results showed that these CYSDV isolates had a quasispecies structure.