Three infectious clones of radish mosaic virus (RaMV) were generated from isolates collected in mainland Korea (RaMV-Gg) and Jeju Island (RaMV-Aa and RaMV-Bb). These isolates differed in sequences and pathogenicity. Examination of the wild-type isolates and reassortants between the genomic RNA1 and RNA2 of these three isolates revealed that severe symptoms were associated with RNA1 of isolates Aa or Gg causing systemic necrosis in Nicotiana benthamiana, or with RNA1 of isolate Bb for induction of veinal necrosis and severe mosaic symptoms in radish. Reverse transcription, followed by quantitative real-time PCR (Q-RT-PCR), results from infected N. benthamiana confirmed that viral RNA2 accumulation level was correlated to RaMV necrosis-inducing ability, and that the RNA2 accumulation level was mostly dependent on the origin of RNA1. However, in radish, Q-RT-PCR results showed more similar viral RNA2 accumulation levels regardless of the ability of the isolate to induce necrosis. Phylogenetic analysis of genomic RNAs sequence including previously characterized isolates from North America, Europe, and Asia suggest possible recombination within RNA1, while analysis of concatenated RNA1+RNA2 sequences indicates that reassortment of RNA1 and RNA2 has been more important in the evolution of RaMV isolates than recombination. Korean isolate Aa is a potential reassortant between isolates RaMV-J and RaMV-TW, while isolate Bb might have evolved from reassortment between isolates RaMV-CA and RaMV-J. The Korean isolates were shown to also be able to infect Chinese cabbage, raising concerns that RaMV may spread from radish fields to the Chinese cabbage crop in Korea, causing further economic losses.
Keywords: Raphanus; comovirus; pathogenicity; symptom severity; virus evolution.