title: Comparative analysis of a highly variable region within the genomes of Spodoptera frugiperda ascovirus 1d (SfAV-1d) and SfAV-1a.
abstract: The recently discovered ascoviruses have a worldwide distribution. Here we report a new member of the family Ascoviridae, Spodoptera frugiperda ascovirus 1d (SfAV-1d) with a variable region in the genome. Restriction fragment length polymorphism, Southern hybridization and genome sequencing analyses confirmed that SfAV-1d and the earlier reported SfAV-1a are closely related but are not identical. The genome size of SfAV-1d is approximately 100 kbp, which is about 57 kbp smaller than SfAV-1a. The SfAV-1d genome has a major deletion of 14 kbp that corresponds to one of the inverted repeat (IR) regions of SfAV-1a. Cloning and sequencing revealed that the region flanking the deletion within the SfAV-1d genome is highly variable. In all the variants of this region, the whole IR region is missing, with 88.2 % of the variants missing part of or the whole adjacent SfAV-1a ORF71, 94.1 % missing part of or the whole of adjacent ORF72 and 64.6 % missing part of or the whole of ORF73.
authors.affiliation: Department of Microbiology, 32 Pearson Hall, Miami University, Oxford, OH 45056, USA.
authors.forename: Jian-Li
authors.initials: JL
authors.lastname: Xue
authors.affiliation: Department of Microbiology, 32 Pearson Hall, Miami University, Oxford, OH 45056, USA.
authors.forename: Xiao-Wen
authors.initials: XW
authors.lastname: Cheng
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D029223:Ascoviridae / Q000145:classification / Q000235:genetics* / Q000302:isolation & purification; D003001:Cloning, Molecular; D004279:DNA, Viral / Q000235:genetics*; D017353:Gene Deletion; D059646:Genome Size; D016679:Genome, Viral; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D016366:Open Reading Frames; D012150:Polymorphism, Restriction Fragment Length; D017422:Sequence Analysis, DNA / Q000379:methods; D018411:Spodoptera / Q000821:virology*
chemical_list: D004279:DNA, Viral