New Volvovirus Isolate From Domesticated House Cricket, Acheta Domesticus (Orthoptera: Gryllidae)

Abstract BackgroundDNA viruses have a broad variety of genetic material. Most viral DNA experiments focused on those with recognized pathogenic characteristics. Herein, we employed hybrid approach to systematically identify viral DNA from the Acheta domesticus genome and also curated primer library to reconfirm the infection of Acheta domesticus volvovirus (AdVVV) from A. domesticus samples obtained from breeding facility in Thailand. Methods and ResultsThe AdVVV nucleotide sequence was anchored and examined from genome sequence of A. domesticus. Subsequently, we sequenced the overlapping amplified DNA to assemble the whole genome of AdVVV isolate. The genome sequence began with the putative nonanucleotide origin of replication (1-TAGTATTAC), and had four open reading frames. The circular nature of AdVVV was confirmed as typical stemloop assembled by complementary initial and ending nucleotides sequences. The newly discovered volvovirus isolates from Thailand is also highly homologous (97.34 -98.77 %) with previously identified volvovirus sequences and having identical gene organization. This correlation is particularly surprising considering that the identified volvovirus considerably mutated compared to previously discovered volvovirus isolates. ConclusionsThis research appears to be the first to find volvovirus isolates from Thailand with an alternative approach to identify viral isolates. These results widen our knowledge on rapidly evolving volvovirus, and provide insights for better identification and the phylogenetic analysis based on different segments of viral genome. Also, the alternative method used in the present study will aid in the detection of DNA viruses and the assembly of their genomes.