Abstract
Carcinus maenas is in the top 100 globally invasive species and harbours a wide diversity of pathogens, including viruses. We provide a detailed description for a novel bunyavirus (Carcinus maenas Portunibunyavirus 1) infecting C. maenas from its native range in the Faroe Islands. The virus genome is tripartite, including large (L) (6766 bp), medium (M) (3244 bp) and small (S) (1608 bp) negative sense, single-stranded RNA segments. Individual genomic segments are flanked by 4 bp regions of similarity (CCUG). The segments encode an RNA-dependent RNA-polymerase, glycoprotein, non-structural protein with a Zinc-Finger domain and a nucleoprotein. Most show highest identity to the ‘Wenling Crustacean Virus 9’ from an unidentified crustacean host. Phylogenomics of crustacean-infecting bunyaviruses place them across multiple bunyavirus families. We discuss the diversity of crustacean bunyaviruses and provide an overview of how these viruses may affect the health and survival of crustacean hosts, including those inhabiting niches outside of their native range.
Highlights
The order Bunyavirales was erected in 2017 to contain a group of viruses with negative sense single-strand ribonucleic acid (-ssRNA) genomes composed of 2–4 segments[1,2,3]
In this study we describe a bunyavirus from the portunid crab C. maenas collected from the Faroe Islands
Phylogenetic and developmental data show that the virus is a novel member in the order Bunyavirales and is a representative of the family Cruliviridae in a newly suggested viral genus (Portunibunyavirus) pending ICTV affirmation and is referred to as ‘Carcinus maenas Portunibunyavirus 1’ (CmPBV1)
Summary
The order Bunyavirales was erected in 2017 to contain a group of viruses with negative sense single-strand ribonucleic acid (-ssRNA) genomes composed of 2–4 segments[1,2,3]. The bunya-like virus reported from C. pagurus likely infects haemocytes, with high viral burdens detectable within the haemolymph of infected crabs[13] These viruses have been associated with disease when crustaceans are retained in close proximity, while little data exists for prevalence and disease in wild populations[14,17]. For those bunya-like viruses detected in crustaceans via nucleotide sequencing methods, no pathology data is available; the genomic information associated with these discoveries provides important insights into the potential diversity, taxonomy and evolution within the order. We explore the phylogenetic and gene-similarity data for all known crustacean-infecting bunyaviruses and explore their evolutionary relationships and links to ecological effects
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