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Journal of Virology, August 2005, p. 9430-9438, Vol. 79, No. 15
0022-538X/05/$08.00+0     doi:10.1128/JVI.79.15.9430-9438.2005
Copyright © 2005, American Society for Microbiology. All Rights Reserved.

Morphological and Molecular Characterization of a Cypovirus (Reoviridae) from the Mosquito Uranotaenia sapphirina (Diptera: Culicidae)

Center for Medical, Agricultural and Veterinary Entomology, USDA/ARS, P.O. Box 14565, Gainesville, Florida 32604,¹ Pirbright Laboratory, Institute for Animal Health, Ash Road, Pirbright, Woking, Surrey GU24 0ET, United Kingdom,² Clemson University, 114 Long Hall, Clemson, South Carolina 29634-0315³

Received 21 January 2005/ Accepted 22 April 2005

A novel cypovirus has been isolated from the mosquito Uranotaenia sapphirina (UsCPV) and shown to cause a chronic infection confined to the cytoplasm of epithelial cells of the gastric ceca and posterior stomach. The production of large numbers of virions and inclusion bodies and their arrangement into paracrystalline arrays gives the gut of infected insects a distinctive blue iridescence. The virions, which were examined by electron microscopy, are icosahedral (55 to 65 nm in diameter) with a central core that is surrounded by a single capsid layer. They are usually packaged individually within cubic inclusion bodies (polyhedra, 100 nm across), although two to eight virus particles were sometimes occluded together. The virus was experimentally transmitted per os to several mosquito species. The transmission rate was enhanced by the presence of magnesium ions but was inhibited by calcium ions. Most of the infected larvae survived to adulthood, and the adults retained the infection. Electrophoretic analysis of the UsCPV genome segments (using 1% agarose gels) generated a migration pattern (electropherotype) that is different from those of the 16 Cypovirus species already recognized. UsCPV genome segment 10 (Seg-10) showed no significant nucleotide sequence similarity to the corresponding segment of the other cypoviruses that have previously been analyzed, and it has different "conserved" termini. A BLAST search of the UsCPV deduced amino acid sequence also showed little similarity to Antheraea mylitta CPV-4 (67 of 290 [23%]) or Choristoneura fumiferana CPV-16 (33 of 111 [29%]). We conclude that UsCPV should be recognized as a member of a new Cypovirus species (Cypovirus 17, strain UsCPV-17).

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