SEQUENCE COMPARISON OF THE 3'-TERMINAL PARTS OF THE RNA OF 4 GERMAN ISOLATES OF SUGARCANE MOSAIC POTYVIRUS (SCMV)

The 3'-termini of the genome of four German isolates of sugarcane mosa ic potyvirus (SCMV) were cloned and sequenced. The sequence data cover ed the 3' non-coding region (3'NCR), coat protein and part of the nucl ear inclusion b (NIb) genes of the isolates. Comparisons of the sequen ces revealed that the investigated isolates are very closely related. An alignment of the predicted coat protein amino acid sequences of the German isolates with sequence data for other members of the SCMV subg roup, in particular the two SCMV strains, SCMV-SC and SCMV-MDB, showed a limited degree of homology indicating that the German isolates may represent a distinct virus. However, this is mainly due to the previou sly reported unexpected sequence diversity in the surface exposed N-te rminal region of coat protein of SCMV isolates. Comparisons of the ami no acid sequences of the core region of the coat proteins and the nucl eotide sequences of the 3' NCR clearly show that the German isolates a re strains of SCMV.