RT Journal Article
T1 Identification of two novel CRESS DNA viruses associated with an Avipoxvirus lesion of a blue-and-gray Tanager (Thraupis episcopus)
A1 Moens, Michaël André Jean
A1 Pérez Tris, Javier
A1 Cortey, Martí
A1 Benítez Rico, Laura
AB The discovery of circular rep-encoding single stranded (CRESS) DNA viruses has increased spectacularly over the past decade. They represent the smallest animal viruses known worldwide infecting a wide variety of invertebrates and vertebrates in different natural and human-made environments. The extremely low similarity of nucleotide and protein sequences among different CRESS DNA genomes has challenged their classification. Moreover, the existence of capsid proteins (Cp) remains difficult to demonstrate which is crucial to understand the structural properties of these viruses. Here we describe two unclassified CRESS DNA viruses isolated from a cutaneous lesion, caused by a strain of Avipoxvirus, from a blue-and-gray tanager (Thraupis episcopus) in Southern Ecuador. Both viruses present replication-associated proteins (Rep) and one to two open reading frames (ORF), one of which represents a putative Cp. The two new Rep are long proteins characterized by the existence of the several highly conserved amino acid residues characteristic of rolling circle replication. Within the putative Cp we detected intrinsically disordered regions (IDR), potential protein and DNA binding regions, and nuclear localization signals (NLS), providing further evidence of presumed Cp. Despite being found on the same host lesion, both viruses show low similarity between each other (< 60%) and other known CRESS DNA viruses. Furthermore, we analyze the evolutionary relationships within the CRESS DNA diversity. Additional sampling is needed to explore the possible pathogenic effects, prevalence and diversity (both phylogenetical and structural) of these viruses in wild bird populations.
PB Elsevier
SN 567-1348, ESSN: 1567-7257
YR 2018
FD 2018-06
LK https://hdl.handle.net/20.500.14352/12067
UL https://hdl.handle.net/20.500.14352/12067
LA eng
NO Ministerio de Economía y Competitividad (MINECO)
NO Ministro de Medio Ambiente de la Loja (Provincia, Ecuador)
NO Ministerio del Ambiente (Ecuador)
DS Docta Complutense
RD 27 jul 2024