Amino-acid sequence comparison of nepovirus coat proteins.

The amino acid sequence of the coat proteins of several nepoviruses was determined by a combination of peptide and nucleic acid sequencing (grapevine fanleaf virus, arabis mosaic virus, tomato blackring virus, grapevine chrome mosaic virus). These sequences were compared and showed homologies ranging from 10% to 69%, and 96.7% for the two arabis mosaic virus strains. 10% homology does not reflect any relationship between viruses, and our results implicate, that nepoviruses, considering the homology of the coat protein sequences of viruses as a parameter for virus taxonomy, may be divided into several subgroups.