Detection of a Fovea-like Virus in African Oil Palms Affected by a Lethal ʹRingspotʹ Disease in South America

A virus with filamentous particles ca. 800 nm long was consistently associated with a lethal disease of young African oil palms, referred to as ‘ringspot’ in Colombia, Ecuador and Peru, South America. Partial molecular characterization showed the virus to be distinct but related [51–67% amino acid (AA) sequence identities in ORF 1] to two tentative species of the genus Foveavirus, namely Cherry green ring mottle virus and Cherry necrotic rusty mottle virus; 40–62% AA sequence identities were observed for the same region of the African oil palm virus and the foveaviruses Apple stem pitting virus and Rupestris stem pitting-associated virus, respectively.