Abstract
A complete begomovirus complex (including a begomovirus, beta- and alphasatellite) was amplified from an invasive and widespread weed, Parthenium hysterophorus, and obtained clones were sequenced. Results showed that isolated begomovirus is Cherry tomato leaf curl virus (CToLCV) sharing highest nucleotide (nt) sequence identity of 94.2% to an Indian isolate of CToLCV. The Alphasatellite isolated from this infection was found to be a recombinant showing the highest nt sequence identity (94.3%) to Tobacco curly shoot alphasatellite (TbCSA), whereas the isolated betasatellite shared the highest nt sequence identity (97.5%) to Papaya leaf curl betasatellite (PaLCuB). To the best of our knowledge this is a novel begomovirus disease complex infecting P. hysterophorus in Pakistan. Furthermore, this is the first report of CToLCV associated with DNA satellites and infecting a weed host in Indo-Pak subcontinent.