Abstract:
To study molecular evolutionary 
characteristics a
nd genetics of 
beet necrotic yellow vein 
virus
  (BNYVV)  isolates  population  from  Iran
,  nucleotide  sequences  of  p25  and  coat  
protein (CP) were determined and the amino acids sequences thus deduced were analyzed 
using  phylogenetic  and  population  genetics
  methods.  A  survey  of  BNYVV  in  Iran  
indicated  the  infection  of  288  collected  sample
s  out  of  392  samples  in  most  beet  growing  
areas and that most of the isolates (92%) were of the 
A
-type and the rest of isolates (8%) 
were 
P
-type.  Our  molecular  evolutionary  analysis  showed  that  CP  was  highly  conserved  
but  allowed  to  assign  all  isolates  to  three  distinct  groups.  Different  parts  of  p25  coding  
regions  were  under  different  evolutionary  constraints.  The  most  positive  selection  was  
detected  at  the  position  68,  the  second  amino  
acid  of  the  tetrad  motif.  Iranian  isolates  
were  found  to  cluster  with  European  isolates  
into  three  distinct  clusters  based  on  p25  
sequences.  Population  genetics  analysis  rev
ealed  that  BNYVV  populations  have  low  
differentiation (Kt= 3.97145) and low diversity (
π
T= 0.006, Hd= 0.860) wi
th frequent gene 
flow indicating lack of phylogeogr
aphic structure between populations. 
Keywords
: Evolution, Phylogenetic analysis, Plant virus, Positive selection.