Tracking Mycoviruses in Public RNAseq Datasets of : Three Original Totiviruses Revealed.

Mycoviruses are viruses that selectively infect and multiply in fungal cells. is the most abundant fungus on human skin and is associated with a variety of conditions, including atopic eczema, atopic dermatitis, dandruff, folliculitis, pityriasis versicolor, and seborrheic dermatitis. Here, we conducted mycovirome studies on 194 public transcriptomes of (2,568,212,042 paired-end reads) screened against all available viral proteins. Transcriptomic data were assembled resulting in 1,170,715 contigs and 2,995,306 open reading frames (ORFs) that were subsequently tracked for potential viral sequences. Eighty-eight virus-associated ORFs were detected in 68 contigs from 28 Sequence Read Archive (SRA) samples. Seventy-five and thirteen ORFs were retrieved from transcriptomes of and , respectively. Phylogenetic reconstructions revealed three new mycoviruses belonging to the genus and named Malassezia globosa-associated-totivirus 1 (MgaTV1); Malassezia restricta-associated-totivirus 1 (MraTV1) and Malassezia restricta-associated-totivirus 2 (MraTV2). These viral candidates extend our understanding of the diversity and taxonomy of mycoviruses as well as their co-evolution with their fungal hosts. These results reflected the unexpected diversity of mycoviruses hidden in public databases. In conclusion, this study sheds light on the discovery of novel mycoviruses and opens the door to study their impact on disease caused by the host fungus and globally, their implication in clinical skin disorders.