Charlock mustard (Sinapis arvensis): a weed reservoir for begomoviruses and associated betasatellite in Jordan

Four crop-infecting begomoviruses were found naturally affecting Charlock mustard (Sinapis arvensis L.) plants in Jordan and characterized at the molecular level. Symptoms included leaf curling and stunting. PCR analysis showed the presence of Tomato yellow leaf curl virus (TYLCV), Tomato yellow leaf curl Sardinia virus (TYLCSV), Squash leaf curl virus (SLCV) and Watermelon chlorotic stunt virus (WmCSV). These viruses were associated with Cotton leaf curl Gezira betasatellite (CLCuGβ). Sequence analysis revealed that TYLCV and TYLCSV had 98.5% and 99.3% nucleotide (nt) sequence identities with a previously described TYLCV strain from Florida and TYLCSV from Sardinia, respectively. The other two viruses, SLCV and WmCSV, shared 99.7% and 99.5% nt identities with previously described strains from Jordan. Sequence analysis also showed that CLCuGβ had 98.8% nt identity with a strain from Israel. To our knowledge, this is the first report of S. arvensis as a natural host of SLCV, WmCSV, TYLCSV and CLCuGβ.