A highly divergent picornavirus in a marine mammal.

ABSTRACT: Nucleic acids from an unidentified virus from ringed seals (Phoca hispida) were amplified using sequence-independent PCR, subcloned, and then sequenced. The full genome of a novel RNA virus was derived, identifying the first sequence-confirmed picornavirus in a marine mammal. The phylogenetic position of the tentatively named seal picornavirus 1 (SePV-1) as an outlier to the grouping of parechoviruses was found consistently in alignable regions of the genome. A mean protein sequence identity of only 19.3 to 30.0% was found between the 3D polymerase gene sequence of SePV-1 and those of other picornaviruses. The predicted secondary structure of the short 506-base 5'-untranslated region showed some attributes of a type IVB internal ribosome entry site, and the polyprotein lacked an apparent L

SUBMITTER: Kapoor A 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC2224395 | biostudies-literature | 2008 Jan

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature