Heterobasidion wood decay fungi host diverse and globally distributed viruses related to Helicobasidium mompa partitivirus V70.

Viruses of the Partitiviridae family occur at a relatively low frequency in the fungal genus Heterobasidion, but show high genetic diversity. Here, we describe four novel partitivirus species that infect three Heterobasidion species that are pathogens of conifers: H. annosum, H. parviporum and H. irregulare. We show that these viruses, designated Heterobasidion partitivirus 12 (HetPV12), HetPV13, HetPV14 and HetPV15, form a phylogenetically distinct clade together with the previously described Heterobasidion partitivirus 3 (HetPV3) found in the H. insulare species complex and Helicobasidium mompa partitivirus V70, both members of the genus Alphapartitivirus. Closely related strains of HetPV13 (over 97% polymerase identity at the nucleotide level) occur in H. annosum and H. parviporum, suggesting recent transmission of this virus species between the two fungal host species. Moreover, the occurrence of nearly identical HetPV13 strains in Finland and Poland (ca 1400km apart) indicates that the dispersal capacity of Heterobasidion partitiviruses is high. Viruses related to HetPV3 have a global distribution but only ca 2.7% overall prevalence among isolates of Heterobasidion. In three cases, these HetPV3-related viruses co-infected their hosts with distantly related partitiviruses or Heterobasidion RNA virus 6.