A novel negevirus isolated from Aedes vexans mosquitoes in Finland

• DOI: 10.1007/s00705-020-04810-4
• Publication Date: 2020-09-20T02:03:06Z
• Authors: Maija T. Suvanto; Phuoc Truong Nguyen; Ruut Uusitalo; Essi M. Korhonen; Giulia Faolotto; Olli Vapalahti; Eili Huhtamo; Teemu Smura
• Keywords: ORFS; Aedes vexans; Novel virus; Intergenic region

Negeviruses are insect-specific enveloped RNA viruses that have been detected in mosquitoes and sandflies from various geographical locations. Here, we describe a new negevirus Northern Europe, isolated pool of Aedes vexans collected Finland, designated as Mekrijärvi (MEJNV). MEJNV had typical genome organization, is 9,740 nucleotides length, has GC content 47.53%. The contains three ORFs, each containing the following identified conserved domains: ORF1 (7,068 nt) encodes viral methyltransferase, an FtsJ-like helicase, RNA-dependent polymerase, ORF2 (1,242 putative virion glycoprotein, ORF3 (660 membrane protein. A distinctive feature relative to other currently known negeviruses 7-nucleotide-long overlap between ORF2. shares highest sequence identity with Ying Kou virus China, 67.71% nucleotide 75.19% 59.00% amino acid ORF 1 2, respectively. similarity Daeseongdong Nona 1, both 77.61% identity, virus, 71.22% identity. northernmost described. Our report supports view globally distributed, diverse group can be found wide range terrestrial biomes tropical boreal forests.