Full genome sequence of a novel iflavirus from the aster leafhopper Macrosteles fascifrons

The aster leafhopper Macrosteles fascifrons is a common insect pest that feeds on rice and other plants and may serve as a vector to transmit various viruses. Here, we discovered a novel virus from M. fascifrons using metagenomic sequencing. We obtained its complete genome sequence by contig assembly and rapid amplification of cDNA ends, and verified the genome sequence by Sanger sequencing of overlapping segments. Based on homology search and phylogenetic analysis, the new virus belongs to the family Iflaviridae and it is tentatively named "Macrosteles fascifrons iflavirus 1" (MfIV1). Excluding the poly(A) tail, the MfIV1 genome is 10,581 nucleotides in length and it is predicted to encode a polyprotein of 3119 amino acids long, which is likely further processed to several polypeptides with conserved domains, including two rhinovirus like (rhv-like) capsid domains, a cricket paralysis virus (CRPV) capsid domain, a helicase domain, and an RNA-dependent RNA polymerase (RdRp) domain. BLAST searches show that the highest amino acid sequence identity between the capsid proteins of MfIV1 and those of other reported iflaviruses is 60.22%, indicating that MfIV1 is a new member in the family Iflaviridae.