Characterisation of Rep-encoding components associated with banana bunchy top nanovirus in Vietnam

Abstract

We have analysed the sequence variability of the banana bunchy top nanovirus (BBTV) DNA-1 sequence from 17 isolates collected throughout Vietnam, and showed that the level of DNA-1 sequence variation within Vietnam was approximately double that previously reported for Asian BBTV isolates. Furthermore, the sequences separated into two geographical subgroups that generally correlated to the northern or southern regions of Vietnam. We have also characterised an additional putative Rep-encoding component associated with some BBTV isolates from Vietnam. This component, which we have named BBTV-S3, shared 47%, 69%, 56% and 65% nucleotide sequence identity with the previously reported Rep-encoding components BBTV DNA-1, S1, S2 and Y1 respectively.