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Identification of neutral mutants surrounding two naturally occurring variants of Potato spindle tuber viroid

¹ Molecular Plant Pathology Laboratory, USDA/ARS,Beltsville, MD 20705, USA
² Biometrical Consulting Service, USDA/ARS,Beltsville, MD 20705, USA

Correspondence
Robert Owens
owensr{at}ba.ars.usda.gov

Single point mutations in the pathogenicity domain of Potato spindle tuber viroid (PSTVd) can have a dramatic effect on disease expression, and only three substitutions are required for the spontaneous conversion of the type strain PSTVd-Intermediate to the rapidly replicating, highly pathogenic variant RG1 (Gruner et al., Virology 209, 60–69, 1995). To identify available evolutionary pathways linking these two variants, we mutagenized five positions in an infectious cDNA copy of PSTVd-Intermediate and screened the resulting mixture of 768 sequences for neutral or near-neutral mutants. Numerical simulations based on the bioassay data indicate that the 23 variants recovered represent >80 % of all such sequences. RG1 was the only naturally occurring variant recovered, and the overall pattern of sequence changes observed indicates that PSTVd-Int occupies a comparatively steep peak within the fitness landscape.