Rw. Briddon et al., Analysis of the sequence of Dioscorea alata bacilliform virus; Comparison to other members of the badnavirus group, VIRUS GENES, 18(3), 1999, pp. 277-283
The complete nucleotide sequence of the genome of Dioscorea alata bacillifo
rm virus (DaBV) has been determined from cloned fragments. Features of the
genome confirm DaBV to be a pararetrovirus of the genus Badnavirus which is
more similar to other mealy-bug transmitted badnaviruses, in particular to
cacao swollen shoot virus, than to rice tungro bacilliform virus. Sequence
variability between cloned fragments suggests that the genetic variability
of the virus may be quite high (up to 11% nucleotide sequence variation fo
r some small regions of the genome) although the overall variability detect
ed was 4.2% at the nucleotide level.