Hypsugopoxvirus: A Novel Poxvirus Isolated from Hypsugo savii in Italy

Lelli, Davide; Lavazza, Antonio; Prosperi, Alice; Sozzi, Enrica; Faccin, Francesca; Baioni, Laura; Trogu, Tiziana; Cavallari, Gian Luca; Mauri, Matteo; Gibellini, Anna Maria; Chiapponi, Chiara; Moreno, Ana

After NGS sequencing, the nearly complete viral genome of a poxvirus was obtained from one contig of 166,600 nucleotides originating from 85,678 reads with an average coverage of 118.53. The nearly full genome sequence of the viral strain was determined and compared with those of other members of the Poxviridae family available on GenBank. For the nearly complete viral genome sequencing, BLAST analysis revealed the highest nucleotide identity (85%) to the Eptesipoxvirus (EPTV) strain "Washington", a member of the Chordopoxvirinae subfamily identified in microbats in the USA ( Table 2 ). The nearly complete genome sequence for HYPV was submitted to GenBank under accession number MK860688. [3, 4] A conservative approach was taken for genome annotation to avoid over-annotating open reading frames (ORFs) that were unlikely to represent functional genes. ORFs less than 50 codons or overlapping by more than 25% with well-characterized genes were not considered for annotation unless supported by other evidence. A total of 161 genes were annotated for HYPV, showing a percentage value of nt identity with its closest related virus EPTV ranging from 42.5% for the HYPV-2 gene (serpin 2) to 100% for the HYPV-90 gene (VLTF-3) ( Table 3) .