Plant viruses of the Amalgaviridae family evolved via recombination between viruses with double-stranded and negative-strand RNA genomes

Mart Krupovic (1) , Valerian Dolja (2) , Eugene V. Koonin (3)

1 BMGE - Biologie Moléculaire du Gène chez les Extrêmophiles
2 OSU - Oregon State University
3 NCBI - National Center for Biotechnology Information

Plant viruses of the recently recognized family Amalgaviridae have monopartite double-stranded (ds) RNA genomes and encode two proteins: an RNA-dependent RNA polymerase (RdRp) and a putative capsid protein (CP). Whereas the RdRp of amalgaviruses has been found to be most closely related to the RdRps of dsRNA viruses of the family Partitiviridae, the provenance of their CP remained obscure. Here we show that the CP of amalgaviruses is homologous to the nucleocapsid proteins of negative-strand RNA viruses of the genera Phlebovirus (Bunyaviridae) and Tenuivirus. The chimeric genomes of amalgaviruses are a testament to the effectively limitless gene exchange between viruses that shaped the evolution of the virosphere.

Keywords: Virus origin; dsRNA viruses; Negative-sense RNA viruses; Capsid proteins; Amalgaviridae

Domains: Life Sciences [q-bio]; Life Sciences [q-bio]; Microbiology and Parasitology; Virology

Mart Krupovic, Valerian Dolja, Eugene V. Koonin. Plant viruses of the Amalgaviridae family evolved via recombination between viruses with double-stranded and negative-strand RNA genomes. Biology Direct, 2015, 10 (12), ⟨10.1186/s13062-015-0047-8⟩. ⟨pasteur-01977387⟩