title: Description and prevalence of a putative novel mycovirus within the conifer pathogen Gremmeniella abietina.
abstract: The European race of Gremmeniella abietina (Lagerberg) Morelet is the causal agent of stem canker and shoot blight on numerous conifers in Europe and North America. It comprises different species and biotypes in which the presence of mycoviruses has been determined. In this report, we describe the full-length sequence of the RNA-dependent RNA polymerase (RdRp) of a putative novel virus, Gremmeniella abietina RNA virus 6 (GaRV6), with 2165 nt and a GC content of 54.7 %. A BLASTp search using the deduced RdRp amino acid sequence confirmed GaRV6 to be related to members of a still unassigned virus taxon, which includes, e.g., Fusarium graminearum dsRNA mycovirus 4 (FgV-4) and the mutualistic Curvularia thermal tolerance virus (CThTV). The prevalence and genetic diversity of GaRV6 was also studied within the European race of G. abietina. We examined 162 isolates originating from Canada, the Czech Republic, Finland, Italy, Montenegro, Serbia, Spain, Switzerland, Turkey and the United States. According to direct specific reverse transcription (RT) PCR screening based on the RdRp sequence, the virus appears to be present only in Spain, where it is relatively abundant but genetically highly uniform.
authors.affiliation: Department of Forest Protection and Wildlife Management, Faculty of Forestry and Wood Technology, Mendel University in Brno, Zemědělská 1, 61300, Brno, Czech Republic, leticia.sanchez@mendelu.cz.
authors.forename: Leticia
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Botella
authors.forename: Eeva J
authors.initials: EJ
authors.lastname: Vainio
authors.forename: Jarkko
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Hantula
authors.forename: Julio J
authors.initials: JJ
authors.lastname: Diez
authors.forename: Libor
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Jankovsky
mesh_terms: D001203:Ascomycota / Q000502:physiology / Q000821:virology*; D014644:Genetic Variation; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D010802:Phylogeny; D010935:Plant Diseases / Q000382:microbiology*; D015995:Prevalence; D012328:RNA Viruses / Q000145:classification / Q000235:genetics / Q000302:isolation & purification*; D064028:Tracheophyta / Q000382:microbiology*; D014764:Viral Proteins / Q000235:genetics
chemical_list: D014764:Viral Proteins