Fixation of Emerging Interviral Recombinants in Cucumber Mosaic Virus Populations

Interstrain recombinants were observed in the progenies of the Cucumber mosaic virus (CMV) reassortant L1L2F3 containing RNAs 1 and 2 from LS-CMV and RNA 3 from Fny-CMV. We characterized these recombinants, and we found that their fixation was controlled by the nature of the replicating RNAs 1 and 2. We demonstrate that the 2b gene partially affects this fixation process, but only in the context of homologous RNAs 1 and 2.