Nucleotide Sequence of the Japanese Isolate of Pepper Mild Mottle Tobamovirus (TMV-P) RNA.

In 1978, a tobamoviral disease on green pepper (Cap sicum annuum L.), which was believed to have resis tance to tobacco mosaic tobamovirus ordinary strain (TMV-OM) and tomato mosaic tobamovirus (ToMV), appeared in Chiba Prefecture12). This pathogenic virus was described as a new strain of TMV and named TMV-pepper strain (TMV-P) in 198012). Then Wetter et al.19) described a pepper mild mottle tobamovirus iso lated in Japan (PMMoV-J) for TMV-P. PMMoV-J causes mosaic symptoms and malformation on both leaf and fruit of green pepper and seriously reduces economi cal yields of crop. PMMoV-J is one of the major viral pathogens of pepper cultivars in Japan, partly because PMMoV-J can spread by seed transmission13). On se rological identification by agar gel diffusion tests, PMMoV-J against both anti-TMV-OM and ToMV antisera gave unclear reactions, whereas antiserum to TMV-OM formed spar against ToMV and vice versa12). These results indicated that PMMoV-J was a member of tobamovirus distinct from TMV-OM or ToMV. PMMoV-J systemically infects twenty-two green pep per cultivars including some cultivars resistant to TMV OM or ToMV12). The symptomatology and serology were very similar to those of pepper mild mottle tobamovirus isolated in Spain (PMMoV-S) previously described by Alonso et al.1). To further clarify the relationship between PMMoV-J and -S, we assayed their symptomatology and determined the nucleotide sequence of PMMoV-J for comparison to PMMoV-S and other tobamoviruses. Symptomatological assays included numerous assay plants. The original PMMoV-J was supplied by Genetic Resources Center, National Institute of Agrobiological Resources, the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries (MAFF), No. 104032. The virus was propagat ed on Nicotiana benthamiana. The PMMoV-J-infected leaves of N. benthamiana were homogenized with 0.1M sodium phosphate buffer (pH 7.0). Test plants were mechanically inoculated with this sap using carborun