title: The genome of Dasychira pudibunda nucleopolyhedrovirus (DapuNPV) reveals novel genetic connection between baculoviruses infecting moths of the Lymantriidae family.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  DapuNPV (Dasychira pudibunda nucleopolyhedrovirus), presented in this report, belongs to Alphabaculovirus group Ib. Its full, newly sequenced genome shows close relationship to baculovirus OpMNPV isolated from douglas-fir tussock moth Orgyia pseudotsugata. Baculovirus DapuNPV is a natural limiter of pale tussock moth Dasychira pudibunda L. (syn. Calliteara pudibunda L.)(Lepidoptera, Lymantriidae), which can occur in a form of an outbreak on many species of deciduous trees and may cause significant economic losses in the forests.
  
  
  METHODS
  Late instars dead larvae of pale tussock moth were mechanically homogenized and polyhedra were purified during series of ultracentrifugation. Viral DNA was extarcted and sequenced using Miseq Illumina platform. 294,902 paired reads were used for de novo assembling. Genome annotation, multiple allingment to others baculoviruses and phylogegentic analises were perform with the use of multiple bioinformatic tools like: Glimmer3, HMMER web server, Geneious 7 and MEGA6.
  
  
  RESULTS
  The genome of DapuNPV is 136,761 bp long with AT pairs content 45.6 %. The predicted number of encoded putative open reading frames (ORFs) is 161 and six of them demonstrate low or no homology to ORFs previously found in baculoviruses. DapuNPV genome shows very high similarity to OpMNPV in a nucleotide sequence (91.1 % of identity) and gene content (150 homologous ORFs), though some major differences (e.g. lack of he65 in OpMNPV) have also been noted.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Similarly to other members of the Baculoviridae family, DapuNPV baculovirus possesses highly conserved core genes. Among them, there is a second copy of occluded derived virus envelope 27 protein (odv-e27), which was previously found only in a member of Alphabaculovirus group II - LyxyMNPV (Lymantria xylina MNPV). Surprisingly enough, DapuNPV and LyxyMNPV genomes share also another feature. Phylogenetic analysis of chitin binding family protein (cbpl) indicates significant similarity of those two baculoviruses from distinct evolutionary groups which infect the same hosts from Lymantriidae. The ubiquitin like family gene (ubil), which has not been described until now, is another characteristic component of DapuNPV genome.
authors.affiliation: Department of Recombinant Vaccines, Intercollegiate Faculty of Biotechnology University of Gdansk and Medical University of Gdansk, 80-822, Gdansk, Kladki Str. 24, Poland. martyna.krejmer@biotech.ug.edu.pl.
authors.forename: Martyna
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Krejmer
authors.affiliation: Forest Research Institute, Department of Forest Protection, 05-090, Raszyn, Braci Lesnej Str. 3, Sekocin Stary, Poland. i.skrzecz@ibles.waw.pl.
authors.forename: Iwona
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Skrzecz
authors.affiliation: Department of Biology and Genetics, Medical University of Gdansk, 80-211, Gdansk, Debinki Str. 1, Poland. bwasag@gumed.edu.pl.
authors.forename: Bartosz
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Wasag
authors.affiliation: Department of Recombinant Vaccines, Intercollegiate Faculty of Biotechnology University of Gdansk and Medical University of Gdansk, 80-822, Gdansk, Kladki Str. 24, Poland. boguslaw.szewczyk@biotech.ug.edu.pl.
authors.forename: Boguslaw
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Szewczyk
authors.affiliation: Department of Recombinant Vaccines, Intercollegiate Faculty of Biotechnology University of Gdansk and Medical University of Gdansk, 80-822, Gdansk, Kladki Str. 24, Poland. lukasz.rabalski@biotech.ug.edu.pl.
authors.forename: Lukasz
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Rabalski
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D001483:Base Sequence; D002874:Chromosome Mapping; D016679:Genome, Viral; D007814:Larva / Q000235:genetics / Q000821:virology; D007915:Lepidoptera / Q000235:genetics / Q000821:virology*; D017924:Nucleopolyhedroviruses / Q000235:genetics*; D010802:Phylogeny; D017422:Sequence Analysis, DNA