Occurrence of piper yellow mottle virus (PYMoV) on Piper betle and Piper cubeba in Indonesia

In a field survey, mottle and chlorotic symptoms were observed on betel ( Piper betle ) and cubeb ( Piper cubeba ) plant leaves in Bogor. Leave samples were collected and analyzed by PCR assay using badnavirus specific degenerate primers. An expected 597 bp DNA fragment was successfully amplified from the samples and sequenced. Sequence analysis showed 91–93% identity to piper yellow mottle virus (PYMoV), confirming its association with all symptomatic betel and cubeb plants. In a phylogenetic analysis, the PYMoV sequence of cubeb was grouped along with PYMoV of Piper nigrum from China, whereas two betel PYMoV isolates were found in a separate group. This is the first report ofoccurrence of PYMoV in betel and cubeb in Indonesia. The study highlighted the importance of cubeb and betel as host plants of PYMoV that need to be monitored for integrated PYMoV management.