A potyvirus infecting chili pepper (Capsicum spp) crops has been characterized. The complete coat protein (CP) gene was obtained. Pairwise comparisons showed that the CP shares 82.8% nucleotide sequence identity and 83.5% amino acid identity with pepper severe mottle virus - PepSMoV (KT896752), a putative potyvirus previously found in pepper crops in Venezuela. These results suggest that this isolate found infecting chili crops in Colombia belongs to Pepper severe mottle virus (PepSMoV) species. To confirm the presence of PepSMoV in three varieties of chili pepper leaf samples collected in Colombia, specific primers were designed. Mechanical inoculation assays were successful and PepSMoV was transmitted to chili pepper plants, which developed severe mosaic symptoms and leaf deformation. To our knowledge this is the first report of the molecular and biological characterization PepSMoV which affects pepper crops in Colombia.

已经鉴定了一种感染辣椒的辣椒病毒（辣椒）。获得了完整的外壳蛋白（CP）基因。成对比较显示，CP与胡椒严重斑驳病毒PepSMoV（KT896752）（一种先前在委内瑞拉的胡椒作物中发现的假定的马铃薯病毒）具有82.8％的核苷酸序列同一性和83.5％的氨基酸同一性。这些结果表明，在哥伦比亚发现这种感染辣椒作物的分离株属于胡椒严重斑驳病毒（PepSMoV）种。为了确认在哥伦比亚收集的三种辣椒叶样品中存在PepSMoV，设计了特异性引物。机械接种试验成功，并且PepSMoV已传播至辣椒植物，辣椒植物出现严重的花叶症状和叶片变形。据我们所知，这是影响哥伦比亚胡椒作物的PepSMoV分子和生物学特性的首次报道。