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Journal of Virology, February 2009, p. 1981-1991, Vol. 83, No. 4
0022-538X/09/$08.00+0     doi:10.1128/JVI.01897-08
Copyright © 2009, American Society for Microbiology. All Rights Reserved.

A Novel Mycovirus That Is Related to the Human Pathogen Hepatitis E Virus and Rubi-Like Viruses {triangledown} ,{dagger}

Huiquan Liu,1,2 Yanping Fu,2 Daohong Jiang,1,2* Guoqing Li,1,2 Jun Xie,1,2,{ddagger} Youliang Peng,3 Xianhong Yi,2 and Said A. Ghabrial4

State Key Laboratory of Agriculture Microbiology, Huazhong Agricultural University, Wuhan 430070, Hubei Province, People's Republic of China,1 Provincial Key Lab of Plant Pathology of Hubei Province, College of Plant Science and Technology, Huazhong Agricultural University, Wuhan 430070, Hubei Province, People's Republic of China,2 Department of Plant Pathology, China Agricultural University, Yuanming-Yuan West Road No. 2, Haidian District, 100193 Beijing, People's Republic of China,3 Department of Plant Pathology, University of Kentucky, 201F Plant Science Building, 1405 Veterans Drive, University of Kentucky, Lexington, Kentucky 40546-03124

Received 9 September 2008/ Accepted 1 December 2008

Previously, we reported that three double-stranded RNA (dsRNA) segments, designated L-, M-, and S-dsRNAs, were detected in Sclerotinia sclerotiorum strain Ep-1PN. Of these, the M-dsRNA segment was derived from the genomic RNA of a potexvirus-like positive-strand RNA virus, Sclerotinia sclerotiorum debilitation-associated RNA virus. Here, we present the complete nucleotide sequence of the L-dsRNA, which is 6,043 nucleotides in length, excluding the poly(A) tail. Sequence analysis revealed the presence of a single open reading frame (nucleotide positions 42 to 5936) that encodes a protein with significant similarity to the replicases of the "alphavirus-like" supergroup of positive-strand RNA viruses. A sequence comparison of the L-dsRNA-encoded putative replicase protein containing conserved methyltransferase, helicase, and RNA-dependent RNA polymerase motifs showed that it has significant sequence similarity to the replicase of Hepatitis E virus, a virus infecting humans. Furthermore, we present convincing evidence that the virus-like L-dsRNA could replicate independently with only a slight impact on growth and virulence of its host. Our results suggest that the L-dsRNA from strain Ep-1PN is derived from the genomic RNA of a positive-strand RNA virus, which we named Sclerotinia sclerotiorum RNA virus L (SsRV-L). As far as we know, this is the first report of a positive-strand RNA mycovirus that is related to a human virus. Phylogenetic and sequence analyses of the conserved motifs of the RNA replicase of SsRV-L showed that it clustered with the rubi-like viruses and that it is related to the plant clostero-, beny- and tobamoviruses and to the insect omegatetraviruses. Considering the fact that these related alphavirus-like positive-strand RNA viruses infect a wide variety of organisms, these findings suggest that the ancestral positive-strand RNA viruses might be of ancient origin and/or they might have radiated horizontally among vertebrates, insects, plants, and fungi.

* Corresponding author. Mailing address: College of Plant Science and Technology, Huazhong Agricultural University, Wuhan 430070, Hubei Province, People's Republic of China. Phone: 86-27-87280487. Fax: 86-27-87397735. E-mail: daohongjiang{at}mail.hzau.edu.cn

{triangledown} Published ahead of print on 10 December 2008.

{dagger} Supplemental material for this article may be found at http://jvi.asm.org/.

{ddagger} Present address: The College of Life Science, Hainan University, Haikou, Hainan Province, People's Republic of China.

Journal of Virology, February 2009, p. 1981-1991, Vol. 83, No. 4
0022-538X/09/$08.00+0     doi:10.1128/JVI.01897-08
Copyright © 2009, American Society for Microbiology. All Rights Reserved.



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