Virus isolate Y1 was obtained from tobacco showing curly shoot symptoms in Baoshan, Yunnan Province. Whitefly transmission test and virion morphology observa-tion showed that it is a begomovirus. In reactions with 14 monoclonal antibodies raised against begomoviruses, Y1 was readily differentiated from begomoviruses reported in China, Pakistan and India. The complete nucleotide sequence of DNA-A was determined, it contains 2746 nucleotides, with two ORFs in virion-sense DNA and four ORFs in comple-mentary-sense DNA. Comparisons with total DNA-A, inter-genie region and deduced amino acid sequences of individual ORFs showed that Y1 is a distinct Begomovirus species, for which the name Tobacco curly shoot virus (TCSV) is pro-posed. The total DNA-A of TCSV is most closely related to that of Tomato leaf curl virus from India (85% sequence identity). In contrast, the deduced coat protein of TCSV is most like that of Cotton leaf curl virus 72b isolate from Paki-stan (98% amino acid sequence identity). Virus isolate Y1 was obtained from tobacco showing curly shoot symptoms in Baoshan, Yunnan Province. Whitefly transmission test and virion morphology observa- tion showed that it is a begomovirus. In reactions with 14 monoclonal antibodies raised against begomoviruses, Y1 was readily differentiated from begomoviruses reported in China, Pakistan and India. The complete nucleotide sequence of DNA-A was determined, containing 2746 nucleotides, with two ORFs in virion-sense DNA and four ORFs in comple- mentary-sense DNA. Comparisons with total DNA-A, inter -genie region and deduced amino acid sequences of individual ORFs showed that Y1 is a distinct Begomovirus species, for which the name Tobacco curly shoot virus (TCSV) is pro-posed. The total DNA-A of TCSV is most closely related to that of Tomato leaf curl virus from India (85% sequence identity). In contrast, the deduced coat protein of TCSV is most like that of Cotton leaf curl virus 72b isolate from Paki-stan (98% amino acid sequence i dentity).