Complete genome characterization of a novel mitovirus from Morchella sp.

Hatice Saif; Ergin Sahin; Gülce Ediş; Ilgaz Akata

doi:10.23902/trkjnat.2025122

Complete genome characterization of a novel mitovirus from Morchella sp.

Abstract

Background: Investigating viral diversity in non-cultivated fungi is essential for achieving a comprehensive understanding of mycoviral evolution and ecology, as current knowledge is largely derived from studies on phytopathogenic and commercially important species.

Aims: This study aimed to identify and characterize mycoviruses associated with wild-collected fungi and to expand existing knowledge on mitovirus diversity in underexplored fungal hosts.

Methods: A specimen assigned to Morchella sp. was screened for mycoviruses using molecular detection and genome sequencing. The complete viral genome was sequenced and annotated; bioinformatic techniques were employed to determine organization, nucleotide composition, and coding regions. Sequences were compared using BLASTp, and phylogenetic relationships were inferred based on RNA-dependent RNA polymerase (RdRp) sequences.

Results: A novel mitovirus, designated Morchella mitovirus 1 (MMV1), was identified. MMV1 possesses a linear RNA genome consisting of 3,167 nucleotides with a G + C content of 41.00% and contains a single open reading frame encoding an RdRp. BLASTp revealed that the MMV1 RdRp shares the highest amino acid sequence identity (40.29%) with Tuber mitovirus 3, a member of the Triamitovirus genus of the Mitoviridae family. Phylogenetic analysis confirmed the placement of MMV1 within Triamitovirus.

Conclusion: This study reports the first mitovirus identified from Morchella and expands the known genetic diversity and evolutionary landscape of mitoviruses, emphasizing the importance of investigating mycoviruses in non-cultivated fungal hosts.

Keywords

Supporting Institution

Ankara University, Coordinatorship of Scientific Research Projects

Project Number

FYL-2023-2976

Ethical Statement

Not required.

Thanks

This study was derived from the MSc thesis of Hatice Saif completed at Ankara University.

References

Akata, I., Edis, G., Keskin, E., & Sahin, E. (2023). Diverse partitiviruses hosted by the ectomycorrhizal agaric Hebeloma mesophaeum and the natural transmission of a partitivirus between phylogenetically distant, sympatric fungi. Virology, 581, 63–70. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.virol.2023.03.002
Ayllon, M. A., & Vainio, E. J. (2023). Mycoviruses as a part of the global virome: Diversity, evolutionary links and lifestyle. Advances in Virus Research, 115, 1–86. https://doi.org/10.1016/bs.aivir.2023.02.002
Bora, E., Akata, I., Keskin, E., & Sahin, E. (2024). Molecular characterization and comparative genomic analysis of two triamitovirus isolates hosted by the hypogean fungus Tuber excavatum Vittad. Trakya University Journal of Natural Sciences. Advance online publication. https://doi.org/10.23902/trkjnat.1478899
Bruenn, J. A., Warner, B. E., & Yerramsetty, P. (2015). Widespread mitovirus sequences in plant genomes. PeerJ, 3, e876. https://doi.org/10.7717/peerj.876
Darissa, O., Willingmann, P., & Adam, G. (2010). Optimized approaches for the sequence determination of double-stranded RNA templates. Journal of Virological Methods, 169, 397–403. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jviromet.2010.08.013
Ferilli, F., Lione, G., Gonthier, P., Turina, M., & Forgia, M. (2024). First detection of mycoviruses in Gnomoniopsis castaneae suggests a putative horizontal gene transfer event between negative-sense and double-strand RNA viruses. Virology, 594, 110057. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.virol.2024.110057
Fonseca, P., Ferreira, F., da Silva, F., Oliveira, L. S., Marques, J. T., Goes-Neto, A., Aguiar, E., & Gruber, A. (2020). Characterization of a novel mitovirus of the sand fly Lutzomyia longipalpis using genomic and virus–host interaction signatures. Viruses, 13(1), 9. https://doi.org/10.3390/v13010009
Gilbert, K. B., Holcomb, E. E., Allscheid, R. L., & Carrington, J. C. (2019). Hiding in plain sight: New virus genomes discovered via a systematic analysis of fungal public transcriptomes. PLOS ONE, 14(7), e0219207. https://doi. org/10.1371/journal.pone.0219207

Göker, M., Scheuner, C., Klenk, H. P., Stielow, J. B., & Menzel, W. (2011). Codivergence of mycoviruses with their hosts. PLOS ONE, 6(7), e22252. https:// doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0022252
Hillman, B. I., & Cai, G. (2013). Chapter six - The family Narnaviridae: Simplest of RNA viruses. Advances in Virus Research, 86, 149–176. https://doi. org/10.1016/B978-0-12-394315-6.00006-4
Hough, B., Steenkamp, E., Wingfield, B., & Read, D. (2023). Fungal viruses unveiled: A comprehensive review of mycoviruses. Viruses, 15(5), 1202. https:// doi.org/10.3390/v15051202
International Committee on Taxonomy of Viruses. (2024). Taxon details: Mitoviridae. ICTV. https://ictv.global/taxonomy/taxondetails?taxnode_ id=202407204&taxon_name=Mitoviridae
Koonin, E. V., Dolja, V. V., Krupovic, M., Varsani, A., Wolf, Y. I., et al. (2020). Global organization and proposed megataxonomy of the virus world. Microbiology and Molecular Biology Reviews, 84(2), 10-1128. https://doi. org/10.1128/mmbr.00061-19
Li, X., Li, S., Yin, W., Sossah, F. L., Song, B., et al. (2023). Complete genome sequence of a novel mycovirus from Pleurotus citrinopileatus. Archives of Virology, 168(2), 66. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00705-022-05668-4
Loizides, M., Alvarado, P., Moreau, P.-A., Assyov, B., Halasů, V., Stadler, M., Rinaldi, A., Marques, G., Zervakis, G. I., Borovička, J., Van Vooren, N., Grebenc, T., Richard, F., Taşkin, H., Gube, M., Sammut, C., Agnello, C., Baroni, T. J., Crous, P., Fryssouli, V., Gonou, Z., Guidori, U., Gulden, G., Hansen, K., Kristiansen, R., Læssøe, T., Mateos, J., Miller, A., Moreno, G., Perić, B., Polemis, E., Salom, J. C., Siquier, J. L., Snabl, M., Weholt, Ø., & Bellanger, J.-M. (2022). Has taxonomic vandalism gone too far? A case study, the rise of the pay-to-publish model and the pitfalls of Morchella systematics. Mycological Progress, 21(1), 7–38. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11557-021-01755-z
Lyu, R., Chen, J., Tang, Q., Hai, D., Wu, T., Xiao, H., Xie, J., & Xiao, Y. (2025). Characterization of a betaendornavirus isolated from the edible fungus Morchella sextelata. Archives of Virology, 170(4), 1–5. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00705-025- 06264-y
Martin, K. J., & Rygiewicz, P. T. (2005). Fungal-specific PCR primers developed for analysis of the ITS region of environmental DNA extracts. BMC Microbiology, 5(1), 28. https://doi.org/10.1186/1471-2180-5-28
Morris, T. J., & Dodds, J. A. (1979). Isolation and analysis of double-stranded RNA from virus-infected plant and fungal tissue. Phytopathology, 69(8), 854– 858. https://doi.org/10.1094/Phyto-69-854
Nibert, M. L., Vong, M., Fugate, K. K., & Debat, H. J. (2018). Evidence for contemporary plant mitoviruses. Virology, 518, 14–24. https://doi.org/10.1016/j. virol.2018.02.005
Raco, M., Jung, T., Horta Jung, M., Chi, N. M., Botella, L., & Suzuki, N. (2023). Sequence and phylogenetic analysis of a novel alphaendornavirus, the first virus described from the oomycete plant pathogen Phytophthora heveae. Archives of Virology, 168(6), 158. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00705-023-05786-7
Rogers, S. O., & Bendich, A. J. (1994). Extraction of total cellular DNA from plants, algae and fungi. In Plant molecular biology manual (pp. 183–190). Springer Netherlands.
Rueda-Maíllo, F., Garrido-Jurado, I., Kotta-Loizou, I., & Quesada-Moraga, E. (2025). A mycoviral infection drives virulence and ecological fitness of the entomopathogenic fungus Beauveria bassiana. Journal of Invertebrate Pathology, 209, 108251. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jip.2024.108251
Sa, W., Qiao, J., Gao, Q., Li, Z., & Shang, Q. (2022). DNA barcoding and species classification of Morchella. Genes, 13(10), 1806. https://doi.org/10.3390/ genes13101806
Sahin, E., Edis, G., Keskin, E., & Akata, I. (2024). Molecular characterization of the complete genome of a novel ormycovirus infecting the ectomycorrhizal fungus Hortiboletus rubellus. Archives of Virology, 169(5), 110. https://doi. org/10.1007/s00705-024-06027-1
Sahin, E., Keskin, E., & Akata, I. (2021). The unique genome organization of two novel fusariviruses hosted by the true morel mushroom Morchella esculenta. Virus Research, 302, 198486. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.virusres.2021.198486
Schoch, C. L., Seifert, K. A., Huhndorf, S., Robert, V., Spouge, J. L., Levesque, C. A., Chen, W., Bolchacova, E., Voigt, K., Crous, P. W., Miller, A. N., Wingfield, M. J., Aime, M. C., An, K.-D., Bai, F. Y., Barreto, R. W., Begerow, D., Bergeron, M. J., Blackwell, M., ... Schindel, D. (2012). Nuclear ribosomal internal transcribed spacer (ITS) region as a universal DNA barcode marker for fungi. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, 109(16), 6241–6246. https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1117018109
Tamura, K., Stecher, G., & Kumar, S. (2021). MEGA11: Molecular evolutionary genetics analysis version 11. Molecular Biology and Evolution, 38(7), 3022– 3027. https://doi.org/10.1093/molbev/msab120
Whelan, S., & Goldman, N. (2001). A general empirical model of protein evolution derived from multiple protein families using a maximum-likelihood approach. Molecular Biology and Evolution, 18(5), 691–699. https://doi. org/10.1093/oxfordjournals.molbev.a003851

Details

Primary Language

English

Subjects

Mycology

Journal Section

Research Article

Authors

Hatice Saif This is me
0009-0008-4286-4727
Türkiye

Ergin Sahin
0000-0003-1711-738X
Türkiye

Gülce Ediş
0000-0001-7038-9865
Türkiye

Ilgaz Akata ^*
0000-0002-1731-1302
Türkiye

Publication Date

July 9, 2026

Submission Date

January 13, 2026

Acceptance Date

April 14, 2026

Published in Issue

Year 2026 Volume: 27 Number: 1

DOI

https://doi.org/10.23902/trkjnat.2025122

IZ

https://izlik.org/JA75YL94MG

Cite

RIS / Bibtex

APA

Saif, H., Sahin, E., Ediş, G., & Akata, I. (2026). Complete genome characterization of a novel mitovirus from Morchella sp. Trakya University Journal of Natural Sciences, 27(1), 115-120. https://doi.org/10.23902/trkjnat.2025122

AMA

1.Saif H, Sahin E, Ediş G, Akata I. Complete genome characterization of a novel mitovirus from Morchella sp. Trakya Univ J Nat Sci. 2026;27(1):115-120. doi:10.23902/trkjnat.2025122

Chicago

Saif, Hatice, Ergin Sahin, Gülce Ediş, and Ilgaz Akata. 2026. “Complete Genome Characterization of a Novel Mitovirus from Morchella Sp”. Trakya University Journal of Natural Sciences 27 (1): 115-20. https://doi.org/10.23902/trkjnat.2025122.

EndNote

Saif H, Sahin E, Ediş G, Akata I (July 1, 2026) Complete genome characterization of a novel mitovirus from Morchella sp. Trakya University Journal of Natural Sciences 27 1 115–120.

IEEE

[1]H. Saif, E. Sahin, G. Ediş, and I. Akata, “Complete genome characterization of a novel mitovirus from Morchella sp”., Trakya Univ J Nat Sci, vol. 27, no. 1, pp. 115–120, July 2026, doi: 10.23902/trkjnat.2025122.

ISNAD

Saif, Hatice - Sahin, Ergin - Ediş, Gülce - Akata, Ilgaz. “Complete Genome Characterization of a Novel Mitovirus from Morchella Sp”. Trakya University Journal of Natural Sciences 27/1 (July 1, 2026): 115-120. https://doi.org/10.23902/trkjnat.2025122.

JAMA

1.Saif H, Sahin E, Ediş G, Akata I. Complete genome characterization of a novel mitovirus from Morchella sp. Trakya Univ J Nat Sci. 2026;27:115–120.

MLA

Saif, Hatice, et al. “Complete Genome Characterization of a Novel Mitovirus from Morchella Sp”. Trakya University Journal of Natural Sciences, vol. 27, no. 1, July 2026, pp. 115-20, doi:10.23902/trkjnat.2025122.

Vancouver

1.Hatice Saif, Ergin Sahin, Gülce Ediş, Ilgaz Akata. Complete genome characterization of a novel mitovirus from Morchella sp. Trakya Univ J Nat Sci. 2026 Jul. 1;27(1):115-20. doi:10.23902/trkjnat.2025122