First report of a Cilevirus associated with green ringspot on senescent hibiscus leaves in Tampa, Florida

A non-systemic cilevirus producing green ringspot symptoms in ornamental hibiscus (Hibiscus rosa-sinensis), was first reported from Hawaii, USA in 2013, and was named hibiscus infecting Cilevirus (HiCV) (Melzer et al., 2013). The false spider mite Brevipalpus yothersi is associated with symptomatic hibiscus but its role as a vector of HiCV has not yet been demonstrated. Positive sense bi-partite HiCV genome shared 86.2% and 80.0% nucleotide identity with the RNA1 and RNA2 of cytoplasmic citrus leprosis virus -2 (CiLV-C2), respectively (Roy et al., 2013a). Both CiLV-C and -C2 Cileviruses were reported from Colombia but the most prevalent one is CiLV-C2 (Roy et al., 2013a). The 92% amino acid identity between the full genome of these two viruses suggests that HiCV could be a strain of CiLV-C2, but it is not clear if HiCV is capable of infecting and causing symptoms in citrus (Melzer et al., 2013). Recently, we reported natural infection of Hibiscus by CiLV-C2 in Colombia that produced green ring lesions wit...