Sequencing 2,951 nucleotides of the 3′ proximal region of the genome of a potyvirus isolate collected from Capsicum pubescens (rocoto) pepper in Ecuador revealed that this was the first representative of a new species tentatively named Ecuadorian rocoto virus (ERV). Phylogeny reconstruction showed that this isolate clustered with potato virus V (PVV), Peru tomato virus and wild potato mosaic virus into a monophyletic group, and was closest to PVV. The isolate was shown to be infectious in tobacco, tomato and, contrary to PVV, in pepper. The pvr2 1 , pvr2 2 , and Pvr4 genes present in many pepper cultivars conferred resistance toward this isolate and could help control ERV