First characterization of infectious cDNA clones of Olive mild mosaic virus

Full-length cDNA clones of an Olive mild mosaic virus (OMMV) isolate were constructed in order to find infectious cDNA clones. The sequencing of three individual full-length clones revealed some differences between them. In vitro transcription of these clones was performed and the effect of spontaneous mutations in the biological behaviour of the in vitro transcripts was evaluated by symptomatology, RNA accumulation and virus replication in inoculated plants. In vitro synthesized RNA from one of these clones was found to mimic the wild-type OMMV, making it useful in future studies on protein structure and function by site directed mutagenesis of individual genes. This is the first report on constructing full-length cDNA clones of OMMV from which infectious RNAs can be transcribed in vitro.