Analysis of the complete genome sequence of black queen-cell virus, a picorna-like virus of honey bees

Abstract

A virus with picorna-like biophysical properties was isolated from South African honey bees. On the basis of serology, it was identified as an isolate of black queen-cell virus (BQCV). Nucleotide sequence analysis revealed an 8550 nt polyadenylated genome containing two large ORFs. The 5h-proximal ORF (ORF 1) represented 4968 nt while the 3h-proximal ORF (ORF 2) represented 2562 nt. The ORFs were separated by a 208 nt intergenic region and were flanked by a 657 nt 5h-untranslated region and a 155 nt 3h-untranslated region. Deduced amino acid sequences for ORF 1 and ORF 2 were most similar to the non-structural and structural proteins, respectively, of Drosophila C virus (DCV), Rhopalosiphum padi virus (RhPV), Himetobi P virus (HiPV) and Plautia stali intestine virus (PSIV). It is proposed that BQCV belongs to the group of picorna-like, insectinfecting RNA viruses constituted by DCV, RhPV, HiPV and PSIV.

Seasonal prevalence of pathogens and parasites in the savannah honeybee (Apis mellifera scutellata)

“…BQCV was present throughout the year and was the most prevalent virus detected. BQCV has previously been reported in South Africa (Allen and Ball, 1996;Davison et al, 1999;Leat et al, 2000) and more recently in Uganda (Kajobe et al, 2010).…”

Prevalence and phylogenetic analysis of honey bee viruses in the Biobío Region of Chile and their association with other honey bee pathogens

“…The symptoms and causes are not clear. Allen and Ball (1996) reported that at least 18 viruses infect A. mellifera, which can be present in all bee development stages: egg, larva, pupae, and adult (Chen et al, 2006 (Tentcheva et al, 2004;Yooa et al, 2012) and their complete genome sequences have been reported (Ghosh et al, 1999;Govan et al, 2000;Leat et al, 2000;Chen et al, 2004a;Fujiyuki et al, 2004;Maori et al, 2007).…”

A tertiary structure model of the internal ribosome entry site (IRES) for methionine-independent initiation of translation

“…Internal ribosome entry is a mode of translation initiation+ It is thought that an internal sequence element of mRNA recruits ribosomes onto an upstream region of the coding sequence, and therefore translation occurs independently of the 59 cap+ The RNA element that is responsible for ribosome entry is called the internal ribosome entry site (IRES)+ The first IRES elements were found in picornaviruses (Jang et al+, 1988;Pelletier & Sonenberg, 1988)+ Then others were found in several viral and cellular mRNAs, such as hepatitis C virus (Tsukiyama-Kohara et al+, 1992), cowpea mosaic virus (Thomas et al+, 1991), immunoglobulin heavy chain-binding protein (Macejak & Sarnow, 1991), and fibroblast growth factor 2 (Vagner et al+, 1995)+ For the IRES elements in cellular mRNA, a short nucleotide segment complementary to the 18S rRNA sequence has functional importance (Chappell et al+, 2000)+ In the viral IRES elements, the secondary and tertiary structure in the IRES has critical roles for translation initiation+ Three types of viral IRES elements are well characterized: those of the entero/rhinovirus, cardio/ aphthovirus, and hepatitis C virus groups+ These characterized IRES elements contain several stem-loop structures, and there are possible tertiary structure interactions between loops and bulges+ Within each group, the secondary structure is conserved, but there is almost no conservation between the groups (reviewed in Jackson & Kaminski, 1995;Lemon & Honda, 1997;Stewart & Semler, 1997)+ Cricket paralysis-like viruses (CrPV-like viruses) are a group of positive-stranded RNA viruses that infect insects+ These viruses are morphologically similar to picornaviruses; however, recently reported genome sequences have revealed that CrPV-like viruses have two open reading frames (ORFs), unlike picornaviruses+ To date, the genome sequences of seven CrPV-like viruses have been reported: Drosophila C virus (DCV; Johnson & Christian, 1998), Rhopalosiphum padi virus (RhPV; Moon et al+, 1998), Plautia stali intestine virus (PSIV; Sasaki et al+, 1998), himetobi P virus (HiPV; Nakashima et al+, 1999), Triatoma virus (TrV; Czibener et al+, 2000), cricket paralysis virus (CrPV; Wilson et al+, 2000a), and black queen-cell virus (BQCV; Leat et al+, 2000)+ The first ORF encodes a nonstructural protein precursor and the precursor is produced by IRESmediated translation (Wilson et al+, 2000a)+ The second ORF encodes a capsid protein precursor, and this precursor is also produced by IRES-mediated translation Domier et al+, 2000;…”