Complete genome sequence of a novel endornavirus isolated from hot pepper

The complete genome of a putative new endornavirus infecting hot peppers (Capsicum annuum) was determined to be 14,729 nt in size, including 12 cytosines at the 3′ end. The hot pepper-infecting virus has the highest nucleotide sequence similarity (94 % query cover and 72 % identity) to bell pepper endornavirus (BPEV) isolated from the cultivar Yolo Wonder in the USA (GenBank accession no. JN019858). The putative single, large open reading frame encodes a 4,884-amino-acid-long polyprotein that contains four putative functional domains: a viral methyltransferase, a viral RNA helicase, a glycosyltransferase, and an RNA-dependent RNA polymerase. A phylogenetic tree based on whole polyprotein sequences confirmed the close evolutionary relationship of the studied endornavirus to BPEV. The hot pepper-infecting virus also has a nick at nt position 975. Taken together, these results suggest that this virus belongs to a new species in the genus Endornavirus (family Endornaviridae), for which the name hot pepper endornavirus (HPEV) is proposed.