Genetic analysis and phylogenetic comparison of Black queen cell virus genotypes

Abstract

1Phylogenetic analysis of 22 Black queen cell virus (BQCV) genotypes collected from 2 honeybee colonies in Poland, Austria and Hungary was performed on a partial helicase 3 enzyme coding region (ORF1) and on a partial structural polypeptide coding region (ORF2). 4While the phylogeny based on the ORF2 region showed -with the exception of one strain 5 from Poland -clustering of the genotypes corresponding to their geographic origin, the 6 ORF1-based tree exhibited a completely different distribution of the Polish strains: three of 7 them clustered within a branch clearly separated from all other central European BQCVs, 8 while four other Polish strains remained well within the central European BQCV genotypes. 9In order to investigate this discrepancy in more detail, the nearly complete genome sequences 10 of the 3 differing Polish strains were determined, together with one Hungarian sample. The 11 sequences were aligned to each other and to the reference strain from South-Africa. 12Comparison of the different genome regions revealed that the 5'-UTR and the intergenic 13 regions of the BQCV genome are highly conserved with longer homologous sections. ORF1 14 (non-structural protein coding region) was found more variable compared to ORF2 (structural 15 protein coding region). The 5'-proximal third of ORF1 was particularly variable and contained 16 several deletions / insertions. The sudden changes in the similarity levels of BQCV strains in 17 different genomic regions are indicative of preceding recombination events.

Prevalence of Four Common Bee RNA Viruses in Eastern Bee Populations in Yunnan Province, China

“…DWV is considered as a common global bee virus which is present in both laboratory-reared and wild populations of bumble bees (Bombus huntii) [1,25] DWV and BQCV are common multi-host and prevalent viruses in European bees. Queen, worker or drone broods can be infected by these two viruses without apparent morphologic alterations, although symptomatic BQCV infection of such broods has also been reported [26].…”

A molecular epidemiological study of black queen cell virus in honeybees (Apis mellifera) of Turkey: the first genetic characterization and phylogenetic analysis of field viruses

“…It has hypothesised that all positivestrand RNA viruses could have emerged from a common ancestor virus that contained genes for RNA-dependent RNA polymerase, a protease that also acted as the capsid protein, and an RNA helicase. However, these gene regions were focused on by scientists for the purpose of the taxonomy of positive-sense RNA viruses, including honeybee viruses (Koonin et al 1993;Tapaszti et al 2009;Singh et al 2010;Mookhploy et al 2015;Ravoet et al 2015). The partial helicase gene region coding the helicase C domain and the partial capsid gene region were examined with regard to genetic divergence and molecular differences among the Turkish field viruses.…”

“…Information regarding the nucleotide sequence and genetic classification of BQCV genotypes is globally very limited (Leat et al 2000;Benjeddou et al 2001;Tapaszti et al 2009;Singh et al 2010;Mookhploy et al 2015;Ravoet et al 2015). In the current study, the two viral genes were examined and the current results show that TrBQCVs highly conserved with each other and displayed a short genetic distance for the helicase gene (p value = 0.036) and the capsid gene (p value = 0.035).…”

“…the honeybee have also been discussed for genetic researches of field viruses by several studies (Tapaszti et al 2009;Noh et al 2013;Reddy et al 2013). In general, phylogenetic analyses of field viruses were performed based on the ORF2 gene (Tapaszti et al 2009;Reddy et al 2013;Mookhploy et al 2015;Tsevegmid et al 2016). Nevertheless, TrBQCVs had differences in phylogenetic classification for both the studied gene regions.…”

New Triatoma virus hosts in wild habitats of Argentina

“…Regarding the six mutations found at nucleotide level, they resulted in only two amino acid changes (position 74 K -basic-for E -acidic-and position 250 V or L, both neutral), with the former being complementary but tolerated. Viral capsid proteins have been shown to be suitable targets for phylogenetic studies in other dicistroviruses (Hunter et al, 2006;Tapaszti et al, 2009). De Miranda et al (2004 showed that the isolates of Kashmir bee virus and acute bee paralysis virus can be broadly separated by their continent of origin, but it is more difficult to identify regional trends within each continent.…”