Nyamanini and midway viruses define a novel taxon of RNA viruses in the order Mononegavirales.
Here, we report the sequencing and classification of Nyamanini virus (NYMV) and Midway virus (MIDWV), two antigenically related viruses that were first isolated in 1957 and 1966, respectively. Although these viruses have been cultured multiple times from cattle egrets, seabirds, and their ticks, efforts to classify them taxonomically using conventional serological and electron microscopic approaches have failed completely. We used a random shotgun sequencing strategy to define the genomes of NYMV and MIDWV. Contigs of 11,631 and 11,752 nucleotides, representing the complete genome of NYMV and the near-complete genome of MIDWV, respectively, were assembled. Each virus genome was predicted to carry six open reading frames (ORFs). BLAST analysis indicated that only two of the ORF proteins of each virus, the putative nucleocapsid and polymerase, had detectable sequence similarity to known viral proteins. Phylogenetic analysis of these ORF proteins demonstrated that the closest relatives of NYNV and MIDWV are negative-stranded-RNA viruses in the order Mononegavirales. On the basis of their very limited sequence similarity to known viruses, we propose that NYMV and MIDWV define a novel genus, Nyavirus, in this order.
Mihindukulasuriya
Kathie A
KA
Department of Molecular Microbiology, Washington University School of Medicine, 660 S. Euclid Ave., St. Louis, MO 63110, USA.
Nguyen
Nang L
NL
Wu
Guang
G
Huang
Henry V
HV
da Rosa
Amelia P A Travassos
AP
Popov
Vsevolod L
VL
Tesh
Robert B
RB
Wang
David
D
D000818:Animals; D002522:Chlorocebus aethiops; D020451:Contig Mapping; D016679:Genome, Viral; D051379:Mice; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D018096:Mononegavirales / Q000145:classification* / Q000235:genetics / Q000648:ultrastructure; D016366:Open Reading Frames; D010802:Phylogeny; D012367:RNA, Viral / Q000235:genetics; D013987:Ticks / Q000821:virology; D014709:Vero Cells; D014713:Viruses, Unclassified / Q000145:classification* / Q000235:genetics / Q000648:ultrastructure
D012367:RNA, Viral