Figure 2. Positions of the Amino Acid Changes Associated with Virulence in the VPg.

A total of 41 virulent variants generated by inoculating ten wild isolates (names in bold characters) was analyzed. The number of virulent variants analyzed from each of the ten wild isolates is indicated in brackets after the isolate name (right). The amino acid differences between the sequences of the wild isolates of the VPg and the consensus sequence (at the top) are indicated in plain letters. Positions of the amino acid changes associated with virulence are boxed (in black). They were deduced from comparison between the sequences of the VPg of the wild avirulent and the derived virulent forms of each isolate. The large dotted rectangle indicates the conserved WAD motif of the sobemoviruses. The taxonomic positions of the isolates are inferred from the cladogram of 22 reference isolates reconstructed by maximum likelihood from their full sequence with bootstrap support of the nodes, strain, and geographical origins indicated (left). The seven additional isolates were assigned to the closest reference isolate after phylogenetic analyses of their coat protein.