Virome of Three Termite Species from Southern Vietnam.

Modern metagenomic approaches enable the effective discovery of novel viruses in previously unexplored organisms. Termites are significant ecosystem converters and influencers. As with the majority of tropical forest insects, termites are studied insufficiently, and termite virome remains especially understudied. Here, we studied the virome of lichenophagous and mycophagous termites (, and ) collected in the Cat Tien National Park (Vietnam). We assembled four full genomes of novel viruses related to , , and . We also found several contigs with relation to and that did not correspond to complete virus genomes. All the novel viruses clustered phylogenetically with previously identified viruses of the termites. Deltaflexi-like contigs were identified in the fungi-cultivating and showed homology with viruses recently discovered in the edible basidiomycete mushrooms.