Penguin megrivirus, a novel picornavirus from an Adélie penguin (Pygoscelis adeliae)

The complete genome sequence of a novel megrivirus of the family Picornaviridae was determined from nucleic acid extracted from a pool of six faecal specimens of Adélie penguins. The samples were collected near Bellingshausen Station, King George Island of the South Shetland Islands, Antarctica. Penguin megrivirus is the first megrivirus with a predicted L protein. It has an L-3-5-4 genome layout, a type IV IRES, and a long 3’ untranslated region of 668 nt.

The authors thank M.-C. Rümmler and M. Senf for sample collection, and C.U.T. Hellen for helpful discussion. Sample collection of the 2014/15 campaign was approved by the Umweltbundesamt (Permission No. Peter_94003-3_338). H.-U. P. received funding from the Umweltbundesamt (Grant No. FKZ 3712 87 100).

Authors and Affiliations

1. Laboratory of Virology, Rocky Mountain Laboratories, Division of Intramural Research, National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, National Institutes of Health, Hamilton, MT, USA

   C. K. Yinda

2. Polar- and Bird Ecology Group, Institute of Ecology and Evolution, Friedrich Schiller University, Jena, Germany

   J. Esefeld & H. U. Peter

3. KU Leuven, Department of Microbiology, Immunology and Transplantation, Rega Institute, Laboratory of Viral Metagenomics, Leuven, Belgium

   J. Matthijnssens

4. Section of Experimental Virology, Jena University Hospital, Friedrich Schiller University, Hans-Knöll-Str. 2, 07745, Jena, Germany

   R. Zell

Corresponding author

Correspondence to R. Zell.

Conflict of interest

The authors declare no conflict of interest.

Ethical statement

No experimental work with animals or humans was done in this study.

Handling Editor: Ana Cristina Bratanich.

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