Cladistic analysis of Tospovirus using molecular characters.

The genus Tospovirus was thought to be composed only of the tomato spotted wilt virus (TSWV), but now at least four Tospovirus species have been proposed based on serological and molecular data. A classification of tospoviruses has been proposed taking into account global similarities of the N gene and N protein sequences of 7 isolates of Tospovirus. Because phylogenetic analyses based on global similarities can lead to classifications which do not mirror the genealogy of the group, we have employed a cladistic analysis using parsimony of this genus with RNA sequences of 450 nucleotides of the N gene from 14 new Argentinean isolates and 4 previously described isolates. Representatives of the Bunyaviridae family, Rift Valley Fever Virus (Phlebovirus) and Bunyamwera (Bunyavirus), were used as the outgroup in separate analyses.