Citrus tristeza virus
| Citrus tristeza virus | |
|---|---|
| Virus classification | |
| Group: | Group IV ((+)ssRNA) |
| Family: | Closteroviridae |
| Genus: | Closterovirus |
| Species: | Citrus tristeza virus |
| Synonyms | |
|
Citrus quick decline virus |
|
Citrus quick decline virus
Hassaku dwarf virus
Lime dieback virus
Citrus tristeza virus (CTV) is a viral species of the Closterovirus genus that causes the most economically damaging disease to its namesake plant genus, Citrus. The disease has led to the death of millions of Citrus trees all over the world and has rendered other millions useless for production. Farmers in Brazil and other South American countries gave it the name "tristeza", meaning sadness in Portuguese and Spanish, referring to the devastation produced by the disease in the 1930s. The virus is transmitted most efficiently by the brown citrus aphid.
CTV is a flexuous rod virus with dimensions of 2000 nm long and 12 nm in diameter. The CTV genome is typically between 19.2 and 19.3 kb long and consists of a single strand of (+)-sense RNA enclosed by two types of capsid proteins. The size of its genome makes CTV one of the largest RNA viruses known. The CTV genome contains 12 open reading frames, which could encode at least 17 proteins.
CTV infects several species of the plant genus, Citrus, including Hassaku orange (Citrus hassaku),sour orange (Citrus aurantium), and any Citrus species grafted onto sour orange , sweet orange (C. sinensis), grapefruit (C. paradisi), lime and Seville orange (C. aurantifolia), and mandarin (C. reticulata).
CTV is also known to infect Aeglopsis chevalieri, Afraegle paniculata, Pamburus missionis, and Passiflora gracilis. CTV is distributed worldwide and can be found wherever citrus trees grow.
Symptoms of CTV infection are highly variable and depend on several factors including host, virulence of the particular virus strain, and environmental conditions. The three most common groupings of symptoms are decline (quick and slow), stem-pitting, and seedling yellows.
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