Completion of Maize Stripe Virus Genome Sequence and Analysis of Diverse Isolates

Abstract

Maize stripe virus is a pathogen of corn and sorghum in subtropical and tropical regions worldwide. We used high-throughput sequencing to obtain the complete nucleotide sequence for the reference genome of maize stripe virus and to sequence the genomes of ten additional isolates collected from the United States or Papua New Guinea. Genetically, maize stripe virus is most closely related to rice stripe virus. We completed and characterized the RNA1 sequence for maize stripe virus, which revealed a large open reading frame encoding a putative protein with ovarian tumor-like cysteine protease, endonuclease, and RNA-dependent RNA polymerase domains. Phylogenetic and amino acid identity analyses among geographically diverse isolates revealed evidence for reassortment in RNA3 that was correlated with the absence of RNA5. This study yielded a complete and updated genetic description of the tenuivirus maize stripe virus and provided insight into potential mechanisms underpinning its diversity.

Highly adaptive Phenuiviridae with biomedical importance in multiple fields

“…They can replicate in the leaves of rice, maize, sorghum, and other relevant gramineous and relevant vector planthoppers. They cause important crop diseases [76,77]. Genomes of tenuiviruses have 4−8 segments, including three or more ambisense segments.…”

“…Reassortment events of SFTSV, RVFV, and other phenuiviruses have been reported [6,77,[83][84][85][86]. Many genomic reassortment events in phenuiviruses were involved with homologous L and S segments and heterologous M segments [6], which possibly resulted from the fact that RdRp encoded by the L segments interacts more closely with N encoded by the S segments than with the envelope proteins encoded by the M segments.…”

“…42 Reassortment events of SFTSV, RVFV, and other phenuiviruses have been reported. 70,[74][75][76] Many genomic reassortment events in phenuiviruses were involved with homologous L and S segments and heterologous M segments, 74 Bunyavirales. 77 The evolution of some phenuiviruses changed one or more negative-sense segments into ambisense segments.…”