Leafhopper Psammotettix alienus hosts chuviruses with different genomic structures.

The leafhopper Psammotettix alienus causes serious economic losses by directly sucking the plant sap and by transmitting plant viruses. Here, we obtained the full-genomic sequence of a novel chuvirus, Hancheng leafhopper mivirus (HCLeV), using RNA sequencing (RNA-seq) and rapid amplification of cDNA ends (RACE). The full genome of HCLeV comprises 9,852 nucleotides (nt) and includes two open reading frames (ORFs), which encode nucleocapsid and large polymerase protein, respectively. Its genomic features are similar to that of Tacheng tick virus 5, a member of chuviruses. However, HCLeV had only 36.6-44.4% identities in amino acid sequence for polymerase and 27.1-44.2% identities for nucleocapsid protein with chuviruses and other viruses in the order Mononegavirales and Jingchuvirales. Interestingly, we found this leafhopper can host two chuvirus species with different genomic structures. The discovery of this new virus potentially adds a new species to the family Chuviridae, and its new genomic structural form indicates broader genomic diversity among the chuviruses.