Identification and genetic characterization of a novel Orthobunyavirus species by a straightforward high-throughput sequencing-based approach

Shifman, Ohad; Cohen-Gihon, Inbar; Beth-Din, Adi; Zvi, Anat; Laskar, Orly; Paran, Nir; Epstein, Eyal; Stein, Dana; Dorozko, Marina; Wolf, Dana; Yitzhaki, Shmuel; Shapira, Shmuel C.; Melamed, Sharon; Israeli, Ofir

Orthobunyavirus is a genus comprising 48 recognized species and more than 170 named viruses 28, 29 . Viruses of this genus are typically arthropod borne but are diverse in terms of geographical distribution, principal vectors and hosts. Currently, most of the viruses of this genus are classified into 18 serogroups 29 . To determine the evolutionary relationship of the newly identified NZV to the known species in the Orthobunyavirus genus, phylogenetic analyses were conducted on the full-length genomic segments of the closest species that were derived from the BLAST analyses and representative Orthobunyavirus species from different Top BLAST hits of the Velvet-assembled contigs. BLAST analyses were performed using the Velvetassembled contigs as queries and the nr/nt nucleotide collection as a database. The top ten hits that were identified for contigs 1, 3 and 4 by BLAST are presented as a graphical overview, where for each hit, the locations and lengths of the homologies that were found are shown using a ruler (in bases) based on the query length. The homologies are color coded according to the BLAST scores. (2019) 9:3398 | https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-019-40036-4 www.nature.com/scientificreports www.nature.com/scientificreports/ serogroups (Fig. 5, Supplementary Figs 1 and 2) . These phylogenetic results were consistent with the serogroup classification. The phylogenetic analyses emphasized that NZV is a distinct species that is most similar to the Oyo virus, an unclassified Orthobunyavirus 30 , and is in the same branch as viruses of the Tete serogroup. www.nature.com/scientificreports www.nature.com/scientificreports/