Abstract
Larvae of the Chinese oak silkmoth (Antheraea pernyi) are often affected by AVD (A. pernyi vomiting disease), whose causative agent has long been suspected to be a virus. In an unrelated project we discovered a novel positive sense single-stranded RNA virus that could reproduce AVD symptoms upon injection into healthy A. pernyi larvae. The genome of this virus is 10,163 nucleotides long, has a natural poly-A tail, and contains a single, large open reading frame flanked at the 5′ and 3′ ends by untranslated regions containing putative structural elements for replication and translation of the virus genome. The open reading frame is predicted to encode a 3036 amino acid polyprotein with four viral structural proteins (VP1-VP4) located in the N-terminal end and the non-structural proteins, including a helicase, RNA-dependent RNA polymerase and 3C-protease, located in the C-terminal end of the polyprotein. Putative 3C-protease and autolytic cleavage sites were identified for processing the polyprotein into functional units. The genome organization, amino acid sequence and phylogenetic analyses suggest that the virus is a novel species of the genus Iflavirus, with the proposed name of Antheraea pernyi Iflavirus (ApIV).
Highlights
Antheraea pernyi Vomit Disease (AVD) is a common disease of the Chinese oak silkmoth, Antheraea pernyi [1]
The polyprotein contains a number of conserved domains: Two Picornavirus-like capsid protein domains were identified between the amino acids 333–562 and 657–851 of the Antheraea pernyi iflavirus (ApIV) polyprotein, corresponding to VP3 and VP1, respectively, as well as a cricket paralysis virus (CrPV) capsid protein-like domain [14] between the amino acids1057 and 1291, corresponding to VP2 (Figure 3A)
ApIV is most closely related to the DWV/VDV-1 species complex, but distinct enough to be considered a new species within the Iflaviridae, which we propose to name Antheraea pernyi iflavirus (ApIV)
Summary
Antheraea pernyi Vomit Disease (AVD) is a common disease of the Chinese oak silkmoth, Antheraea pernyi [1]. AVD is widely distributed in the cold mountainous regions in the north of China, such as the Liao Ning, Ji Lin, and the Hei Longjiang provinces, and found in the much warmer He Nan province in the south It occurs mainly in the 5th instar, especially close to the cocooning period. The larvae stop eating, resulting in shortened bodies that with the death of the larvae turn dark as decay sets in. Since this decay does not turn cankerous or fishy, as happens when the larvae are infected by bacteria, the causative agent of this disease was already in 1986 suspected to be a virus [1]
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