Blackberry virus E: an unusual flexivirus.

A virus, named blackberry virus E (BVE), was recently discovered in blackberries and characterized. The virus genome is 7,718 nt long, excluding the poly-A tail, contains five open reading frames (ORFs) and resembles that of flexiviruses. Phylogenetic analysis revealed relationships to allexiviruses, which are known to infect plants of the family Alliaceae. BVE lacks the 3'end-proximal ORF, which encodes a nucleotide-binding protein, a putative silencing suppressor in allexiviruses. The overall results of this study suggest that this virus is an atypical and as yet undescribed flexivirus that is closely related to allexiviruses.