Abstract
Members of the family Marseilleviridae are giant viruses that have the ability to infect amoebas. Such viruses were initially described in 2009. Since then, this family has grown, and diverse members have been found in different environments and geographic locations. Previous phylogenetic analyses suggested the existence of four marseillevirus lineages. A fourth lineage was described with the discovery of the Brazilian marseillevirus (BrMr), isolated from Pampulha Lake, Brazil. Here we describe the isolation and characterization of the Golden marseillevirus (GMar), a new marseillevirus isolated from golden mussels (Limnoperna fortunei) in South of Brazil. This new representative of Marseilleviridae has circular, double-stranded (dsDNA) that contains 360, 610 base pairs and encodes 483 open read frames (ORFs). The complete virus genome was sequenced and phylogenic analyses indicated clear differences between this virus and other marseilleviruses. In addition, this is the only marseillevirus so far that has been isolated from mussels, and this report expands the diversity of environments from which giant viruses could be recovered.
Highlights
The discovery of protist-infecting giant viruses started with the isolation of Acanthamoeba polyphaga mimivirus (APMV) in 20031
We report the isolation, identification, and genomic analysis of the Golden marseillevirus (GMar), a new marseillevirus isolated from golden mussels collected in southern Brazil
The discovery of a new strain of marseillevirus was attained by analyzing golden mussels, invasive organisms that are found worldwide
Summary
The discovery of protist-infecting giant viruses started with the isolation of Acanthamoeba polyphaga mimivirus (APMV) in 20031. Using molecular and virological methods, one study has demonstrated that oysters are excellent sources for isolating mimiviruses, possibly due to their structure, which allows for the bioaccumulation of microorganisms like viruses and, probably, amoebas[19]. This has brought our attention to golden mussels (Limnoperna fortunei). After its introduction to the region, the geographical distribution of L. fortunei included Guaíba Lake at Rio Grande do Sul (southern Brazil), where it was first reported in 199821 In this manuscript, we demonstrate that mussels are possible sources for the isolation of marseilleviruses. We report the isolation, identification, and genomic analysis of the Golden marseillevirus (GMar), a new marseillevirus isolated from golden mussels collected in southern Brazil
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