@article{mbs:/content/journal/jgv/10.1099/vir.0.047241-0, author = "Lima, Alison T. M. and Sobrinho, Roberto R. and González-Aguilera, Jorge and Rocha, Carolina S. and Silva, Sarah J. C. and Xavier, César A. D. and Silva, Fábio N. and Duffy, Siobain and Zerbini, F. Murilo", title = "Synonymous site variation due to recombination explains higher genetic variability in begomovirus populations infecting non-cultivated hosts", journal= "Journal of General Virology", year = "2013", volume = "94", number = "2", pages = "418-431", doi = "https://doi.org/10.1099/vir.0.047241-0", url = "https://www.microbiologyresearch.org/content/journal/jgv/10.1099/vir.0.047241-0", publisher = "Microbiology Society", issn = "1465-2099", type = "Journal Article", abstract = "Begomoviruses are ssDNA plant viruses that cause serious epidemics in economically important crops worldwide. Non-cultivated plants also harbour many begomoviruses, and it is believed that these hosts may act as reservoirs and as mixing vessels where recombination may occur. Begomoviruses are notoriously recombination-prone, and also display nucleotide substitution rates equivalent to those of RNA viruses. In Brazil, several indigenous begomoviruses have been described infecting tomatoes following the introduction of a novel biotype of the whitefly vector in the mid-1990s. More recently, a number of viruses from non-cultivated hosts have also been described. Previous work has suggested that viruses infecting non-cultivated hosts have a higher degree of genetic variability compared with crop-infecting viruses. We intensively sampled cultivated and non-cultivated plants in similarly sized geographical areas known to harbour either the weed-infecting Macroptilium yellow spot virus (MaYSV) or the crop-infecting Tomato severe rugose virus (ToSRV), and compared the molecular evolution and population genetics of these two distantly related begomoviruses. The results reinforce the assertion that infection of non-cultivated plant species leads to higher levels of standing genetic variability, and indicate that recombination, not adaptive selection, explains the higher begomovirus variability in non-cultivated hosts.", }