Association of Papaya leaf curl virus with the leaf curl disease of grain amaranth (Amaranthus cruentus L.) in India

A severe leaf curl disease was observed on ~45% of the grain amaranth (Amaranthus cruentus L.) plants growing in experimental plots of CSIR-NBRI, Lucknow, India, during the year 2011. The causal pathogen was transmitted through whiteflies (Bemisia tabaci) from infected to healthy A. cruentus seedlings. Association of Papaya leaf curl virus (PLCV) with the disease was investigated by sequence analysis of ~2.7 kb cloned genome, amplified by Rolling Circle Amplification method from the total DNA of a representative infected A. cruentus sample. The analysis of nucleotide sequence data (accession no. JN135233) revealed 92–94% sequence identities and close phylogenetic relationships with PLCV strains reported from India and Pakistan; hence, the virus isolate of A. cruentus was identified as PLCV. Association of PLCV with leaf curl disease of A. cruentus is being reported for the first time from India.