Novel virus at the edge of myco- and plant viruses

To the collection of new viruses we discovered (five in 2015, one last year), a new one has been added now. It belongs to the group of odd viruses, which do not posses capsid (proteinous envelope - like a bacteriophage on the ilustrative picture above). This feature is so unusual within viruses that this group is called "naked viruses".

Naked viruses attack different species of fungi. The newly discovered one, however, together with a few naked viruses described recently, resemble one group of plant viruses, which already own capsid. This subgroup of naked viruses is very probably crucial evolutionary link between plant and fungal (naked) viruses. The details and suggestion of novel group for discovered virus (and its relatives) are described by the authors Lenka Hrabáková, Igor Koloniuk and Karel Petrzik in the journal Virology.

Similarities between newly discovered virus (PlRV1 - red elipse), fungal naked viruses (green elipse), and their relatives attacking plant (blue elipse).

Citation: Hrabáková L., Koloniuk I., Petrzik K. (2017) Phomopsis longicolla RNA virus 1 - Novel virus at the edge of myco- and plant viruses Virology 506: 14-18. DOI: 10.1016/j.virol.2017.03.003