Historical and Contemporary Evidence Confirms a Higrevirus as the Causal Agent of Citrus Zonate Chlorosis in Brazil

Citrus leprosis (CL) and citrus zonate chlorosis (ZC) were first described in Brazil in the 1930s. Both diseases, which caused non-systemic lesions primarily characterized by chlorotic and/or necrotic spots, were associated with the presence of Brevipalpus mites. While CL has since been well charact...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Viruses Vol. 17; no. 11; p. 1428
Main Authors: Pereira, Laura R., Rodrigues, Mariane C., Chabi-Jesus, Camila, Ramos-González, Pedro L., Barbosa, Cristiane J., Santos, Magno G., Costa, Helcio, Maro, Luana C., Tassi, Aline D., Kitajima, Elliot W., Harakava, Ricardo, Freitas-Astúa, Juliana
Format: Journal Article
Language:English
Published: Switzerland MDPI AG 28.10.2025
Subjects:
Analysis
Animals
Brazil
Brevipalpus
Brevipalpus mites
Chlorosis
Citrus
Citrus - virology
Citrus fruits
Disease
Genome, Viral
Genomes
herbarium specimens
High-Throughput Nucleotide Sequencing
kitavirids
Mites - virology
Next-generation sequencing
Pathogens
Peptides
Phylogenetics
Phylogeny
Plant Diseases - history
Plant Diseases - virology
Plant viruses
Plant Viruses - classification
Plant Viruses - genetics
Plant Viruses - isolation & purification
Proteins
Rhabdoviridae - classification
Rhabdoviridae - genetics
Rhabdoviridae - isolation & purification
Transmission electron microscopy
Viruses
Brazil
Hawaii
America
Latin America
United States > US
Sao Paulo Brazil
herbarium specimens
kitavirids
Brevipalpus mites
ISSN:1999-4915, 1999-4915
Online Access:Get full text
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Summary:Citrus leprosis (CL) and citrus zonate chlorosis (ZC) were first described in Brazil in the 1930s. Both diseases, which caused non-systemic lesions primarily characterized by chlorotic and/or necrotic spots, were associated with the presence of Brevipalpus mites. While CL has since been well characterized as being caused by viruses of the genera Cilevirus (family Kitaviridae) and Dichorhavirus (family Rhabdoviridae) and transmitted by several species of Brevipalpus mites, the causal agent of ZC remained unknown. In this study, we analyzed Citrus spp. samples exhibiting typical ZC symptoms using high-throughput sequencing (HTS) to determine the etiology of ZC. We examined historical herbarium specimens collected between 1933 and 1965 alongside fresh samples collected from 2016 to 2022. Our results identified the higrevirus hibiscus green spot virus 2 (HGSV2, Higrevirus waimanalo) as the causal agent of ZC. In addition, we report for the first time the presence of a higrevirus in continental America, expand the diversity of known kitaviruses infecting citrus in Brazil, and demonstrate the transmission of an higrevirus by Brevipalpus yothersi and B. papayensis.
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ISSN:1999-4915
1999-4915
DOI:10.3390/v17111428