Isolates of Bean Common Mosaic Potyvirus (BCMV) characterized from bean plants affected by mosaic disease in Denizli province, Turkey

Bean (Phaseolus vulgaris) are one of the world's oldest crops with both financial and nutritional importance. Bean health is influenced by numerous biotic and abiotic factors, which can lead to significant crop losses. In the plant world, viruses are a challenging group of plant pathogens to combat, due to the difficulty of controlling them. BCMV is one of the prevalent viral agents that affects beans across the globe. Determining the presence of the agent in the relevant region is critical for minimizing crop losses by implementing appropriate preventive and control measures. In this study, 73 bean leaf samples were collected from bean growing areas in Denizli province of Turkey in 2022. The samples were screened for the presence of viral agents using Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR) with specific primers targeting the polypeptide gene. 26 of the bean samples were found to be positive for BCMV. The coat protein gene sequences of two randomly selected positive isolates were sequenced and deposited in the GenBank with accession numbers OQ910196 and OQ910197. The nucleotide sequences of isolates were found to have high similarity with those of isolates identified in various regions of the world. Phylogenetic analysis indicated that these isolates from Denizli, Turkey were closely related to other Turkish isolates. However, since some Turkish isolates in the cluster associated with the Denizli isolates were identified as belonging to the US-5 or NL-6 strain, the current sequences may be related to these strains. Further research is necessary to identify the exact strain of the Denizli isolates, which could be achieved through the use of a strain differentiation set.