In-Silico Investigation of Betasatellite Complexity in Papaya Leaf Curl Disease Complex

Abstract

Papaya leaf curl disease complex (PLCD) impose heavy losses to papaya farmers across India. It is mainly reported to be caused by Papaya leaf curl virus and associated begomoviruses carrying a DNA-A and betasatellite molecules. Both components are required for infliction of severe symptoms. The investigation into molecular diversity is necessary to devise intervention techniques against these begomoviruses. Based on the outcome of diversity, preferred resistance strategy against a disease complex should be generic in nature, which provides an advantage of a broad range resistance against a variety of plant virus causing same disease symptoms. For this purpose, we studied the molecular diversity through investigation of genetic complexity of the betasatellite genome using various computational methods and probed genetic complexity of betasatellite component. Multiple sequence alignment and recombination analysis were performed to understand the evolutionary relationship of betasatellite components with a DNA-A present as a helper genome in case of monopartite begomoviruses. The overall results indicate that the betasatellite molecules have evolved independently of DNA-A component and their association is a result of co-infection and due to inter- and intraspecific interaction with various forms of virus infection in plants. The information generated through this study has potential application in designing intervention strategies against PLCD, which is widespread in Indian sub-continent region that includes countries like India, Pakistan, Nepal and Bangladesh.