Human metapneumovirus (HMPV) has been a notable etiological agent of acute respiratory infection in humans, but it was not discovered until 2001, because HMPV replicates only in a limited number of cell lines and the cytopathic effect (CPE) is often mild. To promote the study of HMPV, several groups have generated green fluorescent protein (GFP)-expressing recombinant HMPV strains (HMPVGFP). However, the growing evidence has complicated the understanding of cell line specificity of HMPV, because it seems to vary notably among HMPV strains. In addition, unique A2b clade HMPV strains with a 180-nucleotide duplication in the G gene (HMPV A2b180nt-dup strains)…
With genomes of up to 2.7 Mb propagated in µm-long oblong particles and initially predicted to encode more than 2000 proteins, members of the Pandoraviridae family display the most extreme features of the known viral world. The mere existence of such giant viruses raises fundamental questions about their origin and the processes governing their evolution. A previous analysis of six newly available isolates, independently confirmed by a study including three others, established that the Pandoraviridae pan-genome is open, meaning that each new strain exhibits protein-coding genes not previously identified in other family members. With an average increment of about 60…
Recent discoveries of new large DNA viruses reveal high diversity in their morphologies, genetic repertoires, and replication strategies. Here, we report the novel features of Medusavirus, a large DNA virus newly isolated from hot spring water in Japan. Medusavirus with a diameter of 260 nm shows a T=277 icosahedral capsid with unique spherical-headed spikes on its surface. It has a 381 kb genome encoding 461 putative proteins, 86 of which have their closest homologs in Acanthamoeba castellanii, whereas 279 (61%) are ORFans. The virus lacking the genes of DNA topoisomerase II and RNA polymerase showed that the DNA replication takes…
Long-read sequencing (LRS) has become increasingly popular due to its strengths in de novo assembly and in resolving complex DNA regions as well as in determining full-length RNA molecules. Two important LRS technologies have been developed during the past few years, including single-molecule, real-time sequencing by Pacific Biosciences, and nanopore sequencing by Oxford Nanopore Technologies. Although current LRS methods produce lower coverage, and are more error prone than short-read sequencing, these methods continue to be superior in identifying transcript isoforms including multispliced RNAs and transcript-length variants as well as overlapping transcripts and alternative polycistronic RNA molecules. Viruses have small, compact…
Haliotid herpesvirus-1 (HaHV-1) is the viral agent causative of abalone viral ganglioneuritis, a disease that has severely affected gastropod aquaculture. Although limited, the sequence similarity between HaHV-1 and Ostreid herpesvirus-1 supported the assignment of both viruses to Malacoherpesviridae, a Herpesvirales family distantly related with other viruses. In this study, we reported the first transcriptional data of HaHV-1, obtained from an experimental infection of Haliotis diversicolor supertexta. We also sequenced the genome draft of the Chinese HaHV-1 variant isolated in 2003 (HaHV-1-CN2003) by PacBio technology. Analysis of 13 million reads obtained from 3 RNA samples at 60?hours post injection (hpi) allowed…
Phytoplankton-virus interactions are major determinants of geochemical cycles in the oceans. Viruses are responsible for the redirection of carbon and nutrients away from larger organisms back towards microorganisms via the lysis of microalgae in a process coined the "viral shunt". Virus-host interactions are generally expected to follow "boom and bust" dynamics, whereby a numerically dominant strain is lysed and replaced by a virus resistant strain. Here, we isolated a microalga and its infective nucleo-cytoplasmic large DNA virus (NCLDV) concomitantly from the environment in the surface NW Mediterranean Sea, Ostreococcus mediterraneus, and show continuous growth in culture of both the microalga…
An increasing number of Klebsiella pneumoniae isolates have been found to be multi-drug resistant. A novel bacteriophage, PBKP05, which infects K. pneumoniae, was isolated and characterized. It has a linear double-stranded DNA genome of 30,240 base pairs in length. Its G+C content is 53%, and 47 putative open reading frames are functionally annotated. This phage can be a candidate material for phage therapy.
Gyrovirus 3 (GyV3) has been identified in faeces from children with acute gastroenteritis. However, whether GyV3 is prevalent in poultry has not been determined to date. To the best of our knowledge, this study is the first to isolate GyV3 from commercial broiler chickens with transmissible viral proventriculitis (TVP) in China. The complete genome of the virus shares 98.4% sequence identity with the FecGy strain that causes acute gastroenteritis in children. Epidemiological investigation from 2013 to 2017 revealed that the infection rate of GyV3 reached 12.5% (42/336) in commercial broiler chickens with TVP, indicating that the infection of GyV3 was…
Herpes simplex virus 2, or human herpesvirus 2, is a ubiquitous human pathogen that causes genital ulcerations and establishes latency in sacral root ganglia. We fully sequenced and manually curated the viral genome sequence of herpes simplex virus 2, strain 333 using Pacific Biosciences and Illumina sequencing technologies.
With DNA genomes reaching 2.5?Mb packed in particles of bacterium-like shape and dimension, the first two Acanthamoeba-infecting pandoraviruses remained up to now the most complex viruses since their discovery in 2013. Our isolation of three new strains from distant locations and environments is now used to perform the first comparative genomics analysis of the emerging worldwide-distributed Pandoraviridae family. Thorough annotation of the genomes combining transcriptomic, proteomic, and bioinformatic analyses reveals many non-coding transcripts and significantly reduces the former set of predicted protein-coding genes. Here we show that the pandoraviruses exhibit an open pan-genome, the enormous size of which is not…
Transposable elements (TEs) are common and often present with high copy numbers in cellular genomes. Unlike in cellular organisms, TEs were previously thought to be either rare or absent in viruses. Almost all reported TEs display only one or two copies per viral genome. In addition, the discovery of pandoraviruses with genomes up to 2.5-Mb emphasizes the need for biologists to rethink the fundamental nature of the relationship between viruses and cellular life.
Bacteriophages remain an understudied component of bacterial communities. Therefore, our laboratory has initiated an effort to isolate large numbers of bacteriophages that infect Caulobacter crescentus to provide an estimate of the diversity of bacteriophages that infect this common environmental bacterium. The majority of the new isolates are phicbkviruses, a genus of giant viruses that appear to be Caulobacter specific. However, we have also isolated several Podoviruses with icosahedral heads and small tails. One of these Podoviruses, designated Lullwater, is similar to two previously isolated Caulobacter phages, Cd1 and Percy. All three have genomes that are approximately 45 kb and contain approximately…
We sequenced the Hyposidra talaca NPV (HytaNPV) double stranded circular DNA genome using PacBio single molecule sequencing technology. We found that the HytaNPV genome is 139,089?bp long with a GC content of 39.6%. It encodes 141 open reading frames (ORFs) including the 37 baculovirus core genes, 25 genes conserved among lepidopteran baculoviruses, 72 genes known in baculovirus, and 7 genes unique to the HytaNPV genome. It is a group II alphabaculovirus that codes for the F protein and lacks the gp64 gene found in group I alphabaculovirus viruses. Using RNA-seq, we confirmed the expression of the ORFs identified in the…
Herpesviruses have relatively large DNA genomes of more than 150 kb that are difficult to clone and sequence. Bacterial artificial chromosome (BAC) cloning of herpesvirus genomes is a powerful technique that greatly facilitates whole viral genome sequencing as well as functional characterization of reconstituted viruses. We describe recently invented technologies for rapid BAC cloning of herpesvirus genomes using CRISPR/Cas9-mediated homology-directed repair. We focus on recent BAC cloning techniques of Epstein-Barr virus (EBV) genomes and discuss the possible advantages of a CRISPR/Cas9-mediated strategy comparatively with precedent EBV-BAC cloning strategies. We also describe the design decisions of this technology as well as…
Viruses of the subfamily Orthoretrovirinaeare defined by the ability to reverse transcribe an RNA genome into DNA that integrates into the host cell genome during the intracellular virus life cycle. Exogenous retroviruses (XRVs) are horizontally transmitted between host individuals, with disease outcome depending on interactions between the retrovirus and the host organism. When retroviruses infect germ line cells of the host, they may become endogenous retroviruses (ERVs), which are permanent elements in the host germ line that are subject to vertical transmission. These ERVs sometimes remain infectious and can themselves give rise to XRVs. This review integrates recent developments in…