Comparative genomics of hepatitis A virus, hepatitis C virus, and hepatitis E virus provides insights into the evolutionary history of Hepatovirus species

Wassenaar, Trudy M.; Jun, Se-Ran; Robeson, Michael; Ussery, David W.

We next tested if the similarity in codon usage is restricted to HAV, its direct cousins, possible ancestors, and the two insect virus species. That was not the case, as another Dicistroviridae member, Israel acute paralysis virus, showed the same pattern. Even an insect virus not belonging to Dicistroviridae, varroa destructor virus (Iflaviridae, replicating in the varroa mite that is parasitic to bees) produced a very similar codon usage plot (Figure 3d ). We then extended the comparison to other ss(+)RNA virus families and identified an equally strong similarity to human coronavirus, a Nidovirales member. Coronaviruses are not known to replicate in insects, but it has been proposed that they might have an insect virus as their ancestor (Nga et al., 2011; Zirkel et al., 2011) .