Evidence of association of begomovirus with the yellow vein disease of an ornamental plant pot marigold (Calendula officinalis) from western Uttar Pradesh

Begomoviruses are among the most damaging pathogens causing epidemics in economically important crops particularly in tropical and subtropical regions. During February 2015, 20 samples of Calendula with yellow vein disease were collected from the campus of S. V. Patel University of Agriculture & Technology, Meerut, Uttar Pradesh, India. Total genomic DNA was isolated from the symptomatic and asymptomatic leaf samples and subjected to PCR using coat protein gene specific primer of begomovirus. The PCR amplification of ~770 bp was obtained from the 13 plants out of 20 collected plants. The PCR amplicon from coat protein gene was cloned, sequenced and submitted to GenBank, with accession number KT833850. The sequence data was further analyzed by BLAST analysis and phylogenetic tree was constructed using MEGA5.0 software which revealed close similarity of sequences with coat protein gene (AV1) components of other potato begomoviruses, which are all tentative strains of Tomato Leaf Curl New Delhi Virus (ToLCNDV). The result also indicated that Calendula spp. plants infected with Tomato Leaf Curl New Delhi Virus may act as an alternate host (reservoir) for other economically important plants.