The pepper virome: natural co-infection of diverse viruses and their quasispecies

BACKGROUND: The co-infection of diverse viruses in a host plant is common; however, little is known about viral populations and their quasispecies in the host. RESULTS: Here, we report the first pepper viromes that were co-infected by different types of viral genomes. The pepper viromes are dominated by geminivirus DNA-A followed by a novel carlavirus referred to as Pepper virus A. The two pepper cultivars share similar viral populations and replications. However, the quasispecies for double-stranded RNA virus and two satellite DNAs were heterogeneous and homogenous in susceptible and resistant cultivars, respectively, indicating the quasispecies of an individual virus depends on the host. CONCLUSIONS: Taken together, we provide the first evidence that the host plant resistant to viruses has an unrevealed antiviral system, affecting viral quasispecies, not replication.