Alternanthera Mosaic Virus

Alternanthera Mosaic Virus

Alternanthera mosaic virus (AltMV) is a plant pathogenic virus. AltMV belongs to the virus genus Potexvirus and the virus family Alphaflexiviridae.

AltMV was first identified in 1999 in Queensland, Australia. The virus was found in Alternanthera pugens (Amaranthaceae), a weed found in both the southern USA and Australia. Since then, AltMV has been identified in various ornamental plants in Italy, the United States (Maryland and Pennsylvania, Florida, and New York), and Brazil.

This virus has a close serological relationship (ELISA/antiserum to the capsid protein) with another well known Potexvirus called Papaya mosaic virus (PapMV). This relationship has led to several examples of misdiagnosis in the past. Sequencing has shown that the core region of the capsid protein is only 79.8% identical to PapMV at the nucleotide level. Isolates of AltMV have shown a 93-99% nucleotide identity to the original Australian isolate.