TY - JOUR
T1 - Smacoviridae
T2 - a new family of animal-associated single-stranded DNA viruses
AU - Varsani, Arvind
AU - Krupovic, Mart
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© 2018, Springer-Verlag GmbH Austria, part of Springer Nature.
PY - 2018/7/1
Y1 - 2018/7/1
N2 - Smacoviruses have small (∼2.3-2.9 kb), circular single-stranded DNA genomes encoding rolling circle replication-associated proteins (Rep) and unique capsid proteins. Although smacoviruses are prevalent in faecal matter of various vertebrates, including humans, none of these viruses have been cultured thus far. Smacoviruses display ∼45% genome-wide sequence diversity, which is very similar to that found within other families of circular Rep-encoding single-stranded (CRESS) DNA viruses, including members of the families Geminiviridae (46% diversity) and Genomoviridae (47% diversity). Here, we announce the creation of a new family Smacoviridae and describe a sequence-based taxonomic framework which was used to classify 83 smacovirus genomes into 43 species within six new genera, Bovismacovirus (n=3), Cosmacovirus (n=1), Dragsmacovirus (n=1), Drosmacovirus (n=3), Huchismacovirus (n=7), and Porprismacovirus (n=28). As in the case of genomoviruses, the species demarcation is based on the genome-wide pairwise identity, whereas genera are established based on the Rep amino acid sequence identity coupled with strong phylogenetic support. A similar sequence-based taxonomic framework should guide the classification of an astonishing diversity of other uncultured and currently unclassified CRESS DNA viruses discovered by metagenomic approaches.
AB - Smacoviruses have small (∼2.3-2.9 kb), circular single-stranded DNA genomes encoding rolling circle replication-associated proteins (Rep) and unique capsid proteins. Although smacoviruses are prevalent in faecal matter of various vertebrates, including humans, none of these viruses have been cultured thus far. Smacoviruses display ∼45% genome-wide sequence diversity, which is very similar to that found within other families of circular Rep-encoding single-stranded (CRESS) DNA viruses, including members of the families Geminiviridae (46% diversity) and Genomoviridae (47% diversity). Here, we announce the creation of a new family Smacoviridae and describe a sequence-based taxonomic framework which was used to classify 83 smacovirus genomes into 43 species within six new genera, Bovismacovirus (n=3), Cosmacovirus (n=1), Dragsmacovirus (n=1), Drosmacovirus (n=3), Huchismacovirus (n=7), and Porprismacovirus (n=28). As in the case of genomoviruses, the species demarcation is based on the genome-wide pairwise identity, whereas genera are established based on the Rep amino acid sequence identity coupled with strong phylogenetic support. A similar sequence-based taxonomic framework should guide the classification of an astonishing diversity of other uncultured and currently unclassified CRESS DNA viruses discovered by metagenomic approaches.
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U2 - 10.1007/s00705-018-3820-z
DO - 10.1007/s00705-018-3820-z
M3 - Article
C2 - 29572596
AN - SCOPUS:85044388080
SN - 0304-8608
VL - 163
SP - 2005
EP - 2015
JO - Archives of virology
JF - Archives of virology
IS - 7
ER -