New features on the genomic organization of a novel dicistrovirus identified from the sweet potato whitefly Bemisia tabaci

The whitefly Bemisia tabaci is an agricultural pest causing large economic losses worldwide. We analysed the genomic sequence of a new viral member of the family Dicistroviridae identified by high-throughput sequencing of total RNA extracted from whiteflies. The virus, tentatively named Bemisia-associated dicistrovirus 2 (BaDV-2), has a genome of 8012 nucleotides with a polyadenylated 3' end. In contrast to typical dicistroviruses, BaDV-2 has a genome containing three open reading frames (ORFs) encoding predicted proteins of 1078 (ORF1a), 481 (ORF1b) and 834 (ORF2) amino acids, which correspond to replicase A (containing helicase and cysteine protease domains), replicase B (a domain of an RNA-dependent RNA polymerase - RdRP) and capsid proteins, respectively. The 3' end of ORF1a contains a potential frameshift signal, suggesting that ORF1a and ORF1b may be expressed as a single polyprotein (replicase^FS), corresponding to other dicistroviruses. The BaDV-2 genomic sequence shares the highest nucleotide identity (61.1%) with Bemisia-associated dicistrovirus 1 (BaDV-1), another dicistrovirus identified from whiteflies. The full BaDV-2 replicase^FS polyprotein clustered with aparaviruses, whereas the capsid polyprotein clustered with cripaviruses in phylogenetic analyses, as with BaDV-1. The intergenic region (IGR) between ORF1b and ORF2 is predicted to adopt a secondary structure with atypical features that resembles the dicistrovirus IGR IRES structure. Our analyses indicate that BaDV-2 is a novel dicistrovirus and that BaDV-2 together with BaDV-1 may not be appropriately grouped in any of the three currently accepted dicistrovirus genera.

Keywords: Bemisia tabaci; PicornaviralesDicistroviridaedicistrovirus; frameshift; insect virus; whitefly.