A New Host Record for Cotton Leaf Curl Gezira Virus (CLCuGeV) Infecting Common Bean, (Phaseolus vulgaris) Plants in Egypt

Cotton leaf curl disease is a major threat to cotton production in Africa. Some bean plants in Giza governorate, Egypt, exhibited symptoms including stunting, mottling, leaf curling, rugosity, vein enlargement, and pod malformation. Immuno-capture polymerase chain reaction (IC-PCR) using antisera for CLCuGeV and degenerate primers for begomoviruses indicated the presence of a begomovirus in infected bean plants. Analysis of the coat protein (CP) (V1 gene) of this virus indicated the presence of CLCuGeV, which was given a GenBank accession number of OQ676568.CLCuGeV-EG:Bean isolate had the highest pairwise sequence identity (PSI) of nucleotide/amino acids (Nt/AA) with an isolate from okra (USA: MN027199 [97.9/98.7]), respectively. Furthermore, CLCuGeV-EG:Bean had >94% PSI of Nt/AA CP sequences with other CLCuGeV-EG isolates from okra (Egypt:AY036010, FJ030878 [97.5/98.7]), pepper (Egypt:MK947932 [97.5/98.7]), melon (Egypt:MK947933 [97.5/98.7]), Cucumis sp. (Egypt:JX416187 [97.5/98.6]), cotton (Egypt:FJ030874 [97.3/97.7]), squash (Egypt:FJ030879 [97.3/-]), and other CLCuGeV isolates from Israel (KT099132 [97.7/98.1]), Jordan (GU945265 [97.5/98.7]), Pakistan (FR751145, FR751145 [97.1/97.5]), and Iran (MZ911854 [96.6/97.5]). A phylogenetic tree based on AA sequences of CPs revealed two major clusters of CLCuGeV isolates. The first cluster involved CLCuGeV isolates from the above-mentioned countries in addition to Oman, the United Arab Emirates, and Cameron. The second cluster circumvented the CLCuGeVs from Madagascar, Burkina Faso, Niger, Sudan, and Saudi Arabia. CLCuGeV from Tanzania clustered alone; suggesting that Tanzania is one of the Sahel-region countries where CLCuGeV originated. To our knowledge, this is the first report of CLCuGeV-EG:Bean naturally infecting P. vulgaris (Fabaceae) in Egypt. The P. vulgaris infection with CLCuGeV widens the host range of this virus and increases its biological and molecular diversity.