Pathogenicity of infectious in vitro transcripts and comparison of RNA3 of Alfalfa mosaic virus Korean isolates

Two Korean isolates of Alfalfa mosaic virus (AHV-AZ, AMV-KR) were isolated from azuki bean and potato plants, respectively, and their pathologies were confirmed on some susceptible host plants including pepper, tobacco and red bean plants. Full length cDNAs to RNA1, RNA2 and RNA3 of the two Korean strains were amplified using the long-template reverse transcription (RT)-polymerase chain reaction (PCR) method. RT-PCR products covering entire regions for the three AMV genome RNAs were cloned. RNA transcripts were synthesized in vitro from each clones using T7 RNA polymerase and infectivity test was peformed in 9 reassortment sets of transcripts. All the combinations of reassorted transcripts were found to be infectious when inoculated onto Nicotiana benthamiana plants, and were not distinguishable to those of wild types. The full-length cDNA clones that were confirmed infectious were sequenced their nucleotide sequences. We will discuss sequence analysis of the two Korean isolates of AMV genomic RNA3 and compare reported foreign isolates of AMV.