Hubei poty-like virus 1 is likely an interspecies recombinant of sugarcane mosaic virus and putative bean yellow mosaic virus.

In 2016, Shi et al. (Nature 540:539-543. https://doi.org/10.1038/nature20167 2016) reported Hubei poty-like virus 1 (HuPLV1) to be a new member of the family Potyviridae. At that time, its polyprotein shared the highest sequence identity (80%) with sugarcane mosaic virus (SCMV). A year later, two isolates of SCMV from Canna sp. whose sequences were submitted to the GenBank database showed 91% identity to the HuPLV1 polyprotein sequence. Based on the species demarcation criteria for the family Potyviridae, HuPLV1 should possibly be considered an isolate of SCMV. To resolve this taxonomical inconsistency, we carried out a phylogenetic and recombination analysis and found that HuPLV1 is an interspecies recombinant of SCMV and bean yellow mosaic virus (BYMV).