Complete genome sequence of lettuce chordovirus 1 isolated from cultivated lettuce in France

Abstract

Double-stranded RNAs purified from cultivated (Lactuca sativa) or wild (L. serriola) lettuce from southwest France were analyzed by high-throughput sequencing. For both samples, BLAST annotation revealed contigs with homology to Betaflexiviridae family members. The full genome sequence of the isolate from cultivated lettuce (JG1) was completed (8,536 nucleotides [nt], excluding the poly(A) tail). The sequence of the 3' half of the genome (4,800 nt) of a wild lettuce isolate (P22) was determined and found to share 95.1% nt sequence identity with the JG1 isolate. The JG1 genome contains four open reading frames, encoding a replicase, a movement protein, a capsid protein, and a protein of unknown function, respectively. Based on genome organization and phylogenetic relationships, the lettuce virus is most closely related to the recently described carrot chordoviruses 1 and 2 in the family Betaflexiviridae. Considering the species demarcation criteria in this family, the two lettuce viruses represent isolates of a new chordovirus species for which the name "lettuce chordovirus 1" (LeCV1) is proposed.