Nucleotide sequence of a hop stunt viroid variant isolated from citrus growing in Taiwan.

The 303 nucleotide sequence of HSVd-citrus(T), a hop stunt viroid (HSVd) variant present in Etrog citron growing in Taiwan, was determined from cDNAs amplified by the polymerase chain reaction. HSVd-citrus(T) is very similar to several HSVd isolates previously recovered from citrus or cucumber, and exhibits microsequence heterogeneity at positions 154 and 181. Phylogenetic analysis using maximum parsimony grouped HSVd-citrus(T) with seven other isolates from citrus and cucumber in a large cluster of "citrus-type" isolates. A similar analysis revealed marked differences in both the extent and distribution of sequence variation among naturally occurring isolates of potato spindle tuber viroid.