Genome sequence and organization of a nucleopolyhedrovirus isolated from the smaller tea tortrix, Adoxophyes honmai

Adoxophyes honmai nucleopolyhedrovirus (AdhoNPV) has a distinctive pathology in A. honmai larvae, killing the host more slowly than other NPVs. To further understand the pathology of AdhoNPV, its genome was completely sequenced and compared with those of other baculoviruses. The AdhoNPV genome is 113,220 bp, with a G + C content of 35.6%. It contains 125 putative open reading frames (ORFs), of which 8 are unique to AdhoNPV, and 4 homologous regions. The other 117 ORFs display similarity to previously characterized baculovirus genes involved in early and late gene expression, DNA replication, and structural and auxiliary functions. The phylogenetic position of AdhoNPV, in relation to 15 other baculoviruses whose genomes have been completely sequenced, was assessed by three different analyses: gene sequence, gene order, and gene content. Although gene content analysis failed to support the group II NPVs, phylogenetic trees based on gene sequence and gene order showed AdhoNPV to be closely related to the group II NPVs. (C) 2003 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.