Sequences Encoding a Novel Toursvirus Identified from Southern and Northern Corn Rootworms (Coleoptera: Chrysomelidae)

Sappington, Thomas; Sappington, Thomas W.; Coates, Brad S.; Bonning, Bryony C.

Sequences Encoding a Novel Toursvirus Identified from Southern and Northern Corn Rootworms (Coleoptera: Chrysomelidae)

File

2022-Sappington-SequencesEncoding.pdf (2.21 MB)

Date

2022-02-15

Authors

Sappington, Thomas

Sappington, Thomas W.

Coates, Brad S.

Bonning, Bryony C.

Authors

Person

Sappington, Thomas

Organizational Units

Organizational Unit

Entomology

Department

Entomology

Abstract

Sequences derived from a novel toursvirus were identified from pooled genomic short read data from U.S. populations of southern corn rootworm (SCR, Diabrotica undecimpunctata howardi Barber) and northern corn rootworm (NCR, Diabrotica barberi Smith & Lawrence). Most viral sequences were identified from the SCR genomic dataset. As proteins encoded by toursvirus sequences from SCR and NCR were almost identical, the contig sets from SCR and NCR were combined to generate 26 contigs. A total of 108,176 bp were assembled from these contigs, with 120 putative toursviral ORFs identified indicating that most of the viral genome had been recovered. These ORFs included all 40 genes that are common to members of the Ascoviridae. Two genes typically present in Ascoviridae (ATP binding cassette transport system permeases and Baculovirus repeated open reading frame), were not detected. There was evidence for transposon insertion in viral sequences at different sites in the two host species. Phylogenetic analyses based on a concatenated set of 45 translated protein sequences clustered toursviruses into a distinct clade. Based on the combined evidence, we propose taxonomic separation of toursviruses from Ascoviridae.

Comments

This article is published as Liu, S.; Sappington, T.W.; Coates, B.S.; Bonning, B.C. Sequences Encoding a Novel Toursvirus Identified from Southern and Northern Corn Rootworms (Coleoptera: Chrysomelidae). Viruses 2022, 14, 397. https://doi.org/10.3390/v14020397. Works produced by employees of the U.S. Government as part of their official duties are not copyrighted within the U.S. The content of this document is not copyrighted.

Keywords

Ascoviridae, toursvirus, beetle, corn rootworm, Diabrotica spp.