Genome Organization of an Infectious Clone of Tomato Leaf Curl Virus (Philippines), a New Monopartite Begomovirus

Complete nucleotide sequence of infectious cloned DNA of Tomato leaf curl virus from Philippines (ToLCV‐Ph) was determined. The single circular DNA molecule comprises 2755 nucleotides. ToLCV‐Ph DNA contains six open reading frames (ORFs) each capable of encoding proteins with a molecular weight greater than 10 kDa. A partial dimeric ToLCV‐Ph DNA clone was constructed in a binary vector and used to agroinoculate tomato plants (Lycopersicon esculentum Mill. cv. Zuikou 102). Typical leaf curl symptoms were observed, showing that the single DNA component is sufficient for infectivity. In total nucleotide sequence comparisons with other geminiviruses, ToLCV‐Ph was most closely related to Ageratum yellow vein virus (AYVV) (79% identity), ToLCV‐Laos (78%), Soyabean crinkle leaf virus‐Thailand (78%) and ToLCV‐Taiwan (77%). The significant but relatively low sequence identity in the genomic DNA between ToLCV‐Ph and other geminiviruses suggests that it is a distinct geminivirus in the genus Begomovirus.