Genetic characterization of goutanap virus, a novel virus related to negeviruses, cileviruses and higreviruses.
Pools of mosquitoes collected in Côte d'Ivoire and Mexico were tested for cytopathic effects on the mosquito cell line C6/36. Seven pools induced strong cytopathic effects after one to five days post infection and were further investigated by deep sequencing. The genomes of six virus isolates from Côte d'Ivoire showed pairwise nucleotide identities of ~99% among each other and of 56%-60% to Dezidougou virus and Wallerfield virus, two insect-specific viruses belonging to the proposed new taxon Negevirus. The novel virus was tentatively named Goutanap virus. The isolate derived from the Mexican mosquitoes showed 95% pairwise identity to Piura virus and was suggested to be a strain of Piura virus, named C6.7-MX-2008. Phylogenetic inferences based on a concatenated alignment of the methyltransferase, helicase, and RNA-dependent RNA polymerase domains showed that the new taxon Negevirus formed two monophyletic clades, named Nelorpivirus and Sandewavirus after the viruses grouping in these clades. Branch lengths separating these clades were equivalent to those of the related genera Cilevirus, Higrevirus and Blunervirus, as well as to those within the family Virgaviridae. Genetic distances and phylogenetic analyses suggest that Nelorpivirus and Sandewavirus might form taxonomic groups on genus level that may define alone or together with Cilevirus, Higrevirus and Blunervirus a viral family.
Institute of Virology, Medical Centre, University of Bonn, Sigmund-Freud-Str. 25, 53127 Bonn, Germany. rene.kallies@ufz.de.
René
R
Kallies
Institute of Virology, Medical Centre, University of Bonn, Sigmund-Freud-Str. 25, 53127 Bonn, Germany. kopp@virology-bonn.de.
Anne
A
Kopp
Institute of Virology, Medical Centre, University of Bonn, Sigmund-Freud-Str. 25, 53127 Bonn, Germany. zirkel@virology-bonn.de.
Florian
F
Zirkel
Estación de Biología Tropical Los Tuxtlas, Instituto de Biología, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, Apdo 176, San Andres Tuxtla, Veracruz, Mexico. aestrada@primatesmx.com.
Alejandro
A
Estrada
Department of Environmental Sciences and Program in Population Biology, Ecology and Evolution, Emory University, Atlanta, GA 30322, USA. thomas.gillespie@emory.edu.
Thomas R
TR
Gillespie
Institute of Virology, Medical Centre, University of Bonn, Sigmund-Freud-Str. 25, 53127 Bonn, Germany. drosten@virology-bonn.de.
Christian
C
Drosten
Institute of Virology, Medical Centre, University of Bonn, Sigmund-Freud-Str. 25, 53127 Bonn, Germany. junglen@virology-bonn.de.
Sandra
S
Junglen
D000818:Animals; D002460:Cell Line; D016000:Cluster Analysis; D007560:Cote d'Ivoire; D009033:Culicidae / Q000821:virology*; D003588:Cytopathogenic Effect, Viral; D059014:High-Throughput Nucleotide Sequencing; D008800:Mexico; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D010802:Phylogeny; D012328:RNA Viruses / Q000145:classification* / Q000235:genetics*; D017422:Sequence Analysis, DNA; D017385:Sequence Homology