Molecular evidence that a lily-infecting strain of Tulip breaking virus from Japan is a strain of Lily mottle virus

The sequence of the 3'-terminal 2074 nucleotides (nts), excluding the 3'-po ly (A) tail, of RNA of a potyvirus isolated from lily (Lilium Asiatic hybri d cv. Enchantment) in Japan, currently tentatively designated as Tulip brea king virus-li (TBV-li), was determined. The sequence started within a singl e open reading frame (ORF) that encoded the carboxyl terminus of the large nuclear inclusion protein (NIb) and the complete 275-amino-acid coat protei n (CP), followed by a 3'-untranslated region (3'-UTR) of 204 nts. The CP of TBV-li shared 91% amino acid (aa) sequence identity with that of TBV lily strain Dutch isolate (TBV-lily). The nt sequences of their 3'-UTR were 94% identical. However both viruses shared only 60-65% sequence identities with TBV tulip strain Niigata isolate in the corresponding regions. The results suggest that TBV-li is closely related to TBV-lily, and that these two TBV lily strains should be classified into a species different from TBV tulip strains. We therefore support a proposal to rename TBV-lily Lily mottle vir us (LMoV), and suggest that TBV-li is another strain of LMoV (LMoV-J).