Isolation and characterization of the full coding sequence of a novel densovirus from the mosquito Culex pipiens pallens

During an investigation of arboviruses in China, a novel densovirus (DNV) was isolated from the adult female Culex pipiens pallens. The virus, designated Culex pipiens pallens densovirus (CppDNV), caused cytopathic effect in C6/36 cells. The virus particles were icosahedral, non-enveloped and had a mean diameter of 24 nm. The complete coding region of CppDNV was found to be 3335 nt and it contained three open reading frames (ORFs). CppDNV shares 82–93 % identical nucleotides with isolates of the Aedes albopictus densovirus [isolates AalDNV-1, AalDNV-2 (C6/36 DNV) and AalDNV-3], Aedes aegypti densovirus (AaeDNV) and Haemagogus equines densovirus (HeDNV). The nucleotide sequence identity among CppDNV isolates exceeds 98 %. Phylogenetic trees based on non-structural (NS1 and NS2) and capsid (VP) genes show that CppDNV clustered with the species AaeDNV and represents a novel variant of this species within the genus Brevidensovirus.