The nucleotide sequence of the RNA-2 of an isolate of the English serotype of tomato black ring virus: RNA recombination in the history of nepoviruses

The RNA-2 of a carrot isolate from the English serotype of tomato black ring nepovirus (TBRV-ED) has been sequenced. It is 4618 nucleotides long and contains one open reading frame encoding a polypeptide of 1344 amino acids. The 5' non-coding region contains three repetitions of a stem-loop structure also conserved in TBRV-Scottish and grapevine chrome mosaic nepovirus (GCMV). The coat protein domain was mapped to the carboxy-terminal one-third of the polyprotein. Sequence comparisons indicate that TBRV-ED RNA-2 probably arose by an RNA recombination event that resulted in the exchange of the putative movement protein gene between TBRV and GCMV.