Molecular characterization of a novel cytorhabdovirus associated with paper mulberry mosaic disease

Abstract

A novel cytorhabdovirus, tentatively named "paper mulberry mosaic-associated virus" (PMuMaV), was discovered and identified by transcriptome sequencing (RNA-seq), small RNA sequencing (sRNA-seq), and RT-PCR amplification. The whole-genome sequence of PMuMaV is 13,736 nucleotides (nt) in length and contains six open reading frames (ORFs) encoding a nucleocapsid protein (N), a phosphoprotein (P), a putative movement protein (P3), a matrix protein (M), a glycoprotein (G), and an RNA-dependent RNA polymerase (L). The coding sequences are flanked by a 194-nt leader and a 370-nt trailer sequence at the 3' terminus and 5' terminus, respectively. Pairwise sequence comparisons showed that PMuMaV is related to northern cereal mosaic virus (NCMV, 38.97%), barley yellow striate mosaic virus (BYSMV, 38.86%), and maize yellow striate virus (MYSV, 38.76%), and phylogenetic analysis also placed these viruses together into the same branch, thus suggesting that PMuMaV is a member of a new species in the genus Cytorhabdovirus.