title: Viral diseases of the giant fresh water prawn Macrobrachium rosenbergii: a review.
abstract: The giant freshwater prawn Macrobrachium rosenbergii is cultivated essentially in Southern and South-eastern Asian countries such as continental China, India, Thailand and Taiwan. To date, only two viral agents have been reported from this prawn. The first (HPV-type virus) was observed by chance 25 years ago in hypertrophied nuclei of hepatopancreatic epithelial cells and is closely related to members of the Parvoviridae family. The second, a nodavirus named MrNV, is always associated with a non-autonomous satellite-like virus (XSV), and is the origin of so-called white tail disease (WTD) responsible for mass mortalities and important economic losses in hatcheries and farms for over a decade. After isolation and purification of these two particles, they were physico-chemically characterized and their genome sequenced. The MrNV genome is formed with two single linear ss-RNA molecules, 3202 and 1250 nucleotides long, respectively. Each RNA segment contains only one ORF, ORF1 coding for the RNA-dependant RNA polymerase located on the long segment and ORF2 coding for the structural protein CP-43 located on the small one. The XSV genome (linear ss-RNA), 796 nucleotides long, contains a single ORF coding for the XSV coat protein CP-17. The XSV does not contain any RdRp gene and consequently needs the MrNV polymerase to replicate.
authors.affiliation: Pathogens and Environment, UMR 5119, EcoLag cc 093, CNRS/UM2, Place E. Bataillon, 34095 Montpellier Cedex 5, France. bonami@crit.univ-montp2.fr
authors.forename: Jean-Robert
authors.initials: JR
authors.lastname: Bonami
authors.forename: Joannes
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Sri Widada
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D002460:Cell Line; D005399:Fishes / Q000821:virology; D005618:Fresh Water / Q000821:virology; D016679:Genome, Viral; D005843:Geography; D033541:Palaemonidae / Q000821:virology*; D010321:Parvoviridae / Q000235:genetics / Q000302:isolation & purification / Q000472:pathogenicity*