Molecular characterization of a novel ourmia-like virus from the phytopathogenic fungus Botryosphaeria dothidea

Abstract

Here, we describe a novel ourmia-like virus, Botryosphaeria dothidea ourmia-like virus 2 (BdOLV2), derived from phytopathogenic fungus Botryosphaeria dothidea strain ZM180192-1, infecting maize in Henan province of China. The complete genome sequence of BdOLV2 consists of a positive-sense single-stranded RNA (+ ssRNA) segment with a length of 2,532 nucleotides (nt). The sequence contains a large open reading frame (ORF), encoding a putative RNA-dependent RNA polymerase (RdRp) including 605 amino acids (aa) with a molecular mass of 68.59 kDa. This RdRp protein contains eight typical conserved domain motifs associated with ourmia-like virus. BLASTp analysis revealed that the RdRp protein of BdOLV2 had the highest similarity (62.10%, 58.15%, and 55.75% identity, respectively) with Botourmiaviridae sp., Macrophomina phaseolina ourmia-like virus 2 and Macrophomina phaseolina ourmia-like virus 2-A. Phylogenetic analysis based on the RdRp aa sequence indicated that BdOLV2 is a new member of the genus Magoulivirus with in the family Botourmiaviridae.