First Report of Saffron-Associated Mastrevirus 1 from Saffron in Iran

Abstract

In spring 2022, 40 leaf samples of saffron plants harboring a wide varietyof symptoms, including curling, yellowing, mosaic, dwarfing, and leafmalformation, were collected from three Khorasan provinces in Iran. Thesesamples were processed using the virion-associated nucleic acid-basedmetagenomics approach (Moubset et al. 2022). Notably, 147 contigs with asize of >500 bp distributed among 35 samples with multiple symptomaticpatterns (curling, yellowing, mosaic, dwarfing, and leaf malformation)shared >90% nucleotide identity with saffron-associated mastrevirus 1(SaM1) (Mart´ınez-Fajardo et al. 2024). This virus has recently been detectedfrom transcriptomic datasets from saffron (Crocus sativus L.) collected inIndia. SaM1 was proposed to belong to a new species of the Mastrevirusgenus (Geminiviridae family) and was tentatively named Saffron-associatedmastrevirus 1 (Mart´ınez-Fajardo et al. 2024). In addition, contigs assigned tosaffron potyviruses, including saffron latent virus, turnip mosaic virus, andbean yellow mosaic virus, were assembled from the 40 saffron samples,pinpointing that no conclusion could be made on the causal virus of ob-served symptoms. Total DNAs of the 40 saffron samples were furtherextracted using the DNeasy Plant Mini Kit (Qiagen) and were tested for thepresence of SaM1 using a primer pair amplifying a 327-bp-long fragmentlocated in the coat protein