Identification of two putative novel RNA viruses in the transcriptome datasets of small cardamom

Abstract

Elettaria cardamomum (small cardamom) is an important spice crop native to south India. In the present study, we attempted to unveil the viral spectrum of small cardamom, which still remains less explored, using the public domain transcriptome datasets. Two putative novel viruses tentatively named as cardamom virus X (CdVX) and cardamom polerovirus (CdPV) were identified by analysis of four small cardamom transcriptome datasets. Two CdVX genomes (5.97 kb and 5.91 kb) that encoded for five proteins shared the highest nucleotide identity of 70.4% with the lily virus X genome while the CdPV genome (5.86 kb) that encoded for seven proteins shared the greatest nucleotide identity of 71.8% with Ullucus polerovirus 1. Phylogenetic and sequence similarity analyses shows that CdVX and CdPV are putative novel members of the genus Potexvirus and Polerovirus, respectively.