Python nidoviruses, more than respiratory pathogens

Eva Dervas; Jussi Hepojoki; Teemu Smura; Barbara Prähauser; Katharina Windbichler; Sandra Blumich; Antonio Ramis; Udo Hetzel; Anja Kipar

The copyright holder for this preprint (which was not peer-reviewed) is the . https://doi.org/10.1101/2020.04.10.036640 doi: bioRxiv preprint wall. These were represented by multifocal (pyo)granulomatous perivascular infiltrates of 246 macrophages and fewer heterophils and lymphocytes which were predominantly seen in the 247 submucosa in close proximity to the gut associated lymphatic tissue (GALT) but occasionally 248 extended into the tunica muscularis (Fig. 2C, E) . These lesions contained abundant nidovirus NP The copyright holder for this preprint (which was not peer-reviewed) is the . https://doi.org/10.1101/2020.04.10.036640 doi: bioRxiv preprint to the inflammatory foci (e.g. pancreatic ducts, renal tubules etc.) without any evidence of (Fig. 3D ). In two cases (CH-B6 and -F1) ependymal cells were also 283 found to be infected, without evidence of correlating brain lesions (Fig 5D) . Table 1 ) and three positive liver specimens (CH-A7, -A8 and CH-B6, viruses had less than 5 % nucleotide and less than 2.4 % amino acid differences with recently 299 described Morelia viridis nidovirus isolates BH128 14-12 and BH171 14-7 and Serpentovirinae 300 sp isolates L3, L4 and H0-1, but more than 13 % nucleotide and 8.5 % amino acid differences to 301 all other nidovirus strains. Phylogenetic analysis based on ORF1b suggested that these virus 302 forms a sister clade to the previously known python-associated nidovirus species; BPNV and 303 MVNV (Fig 6) . CDSs of the same virus species were obtained from 11 cell culture supernatants, 304 including the isolation attempts from the liver samples included in the NGS analysis. One of the 305 cell culture supernatants analyzed by NGS yielded CDS of MVNV (animal E-C1, Table 1 ), and 306 for four cell culture supernatants NGS failed due to severe bacterial contamination.