Molecular and pathobiological characterization of 61 Potato mop-top virus full-length cDNAs reveals great variability of the virus in the centre of potato domestication, novel genotypes and evidence for recombination.

The evolutionary divergence of Potato mop-top virus (PMTV), a tri-partite, single-stranded RNA virus, is exceptionally low, based on the analysis of sequences obtained from isolates from Europe, Asia and North America. In general, RNA viruses exist as dynamic populations of closely related and recombinant genomes that are subjected to continuous genetic variation. The reason behind the low genetic variation of PMTV remains unclear.