A new blunervirus infects tomato crops in Italy and Australia

In this study, we determined the complete genome sequence of a new blunervirus isolated from tomato plants grown in an open field in Italy in the fall of 2018. Like other blunerviruses, the RNA genome of this virus is quadripartite, positive-sense, and single-stranded. Excluding the polyA tail present in each segment, the RNAs 1 and 2 are 5790 nucleotides (nt) and 3621 nt in size, respectively, and each contains a single open reading frame (ORF). The RNAs 3 and 4 are 2842 and 1924 nt long and encode five and two ORFs, respectively. BLASTp analysis of the predicted products of RNA1 and RNA2 ORF1 showed the highest sequence identity (31% and 42%) to tea plant necrotic ring blotch virus (TPNRBV), while the protein encoded by RNA 4 ORF2 had the highest sequence identity (38%) to blueberry necrotic ring blotch virus (BNRBV). These are the only two recognized members in the genus Blunervirus. When the RNA3 ORF3 and ORF5 products were compared with the blunerviruses-encoded proteins, they had the highest sequence identity (30% and 32%) to their TPNRBV-encoded homologs; however, general comparisons showed stronger matches to two different proteins from Acinetobacter baumannii. The proteins encoded by ORFs 1, 2 and 4 of RNA3 and ORF 1 of RNA4 showed no significant BLASTp hits to any known proteins in the databases. Given the limited genetic similarity of this virus to those currently available in the databases, we suggest that this is a new virus, for which we propose the name "tomato fruit blotch virus" (ToFBV). A distinct isolate of the same virus was also detected in Australia.