Molecular characterization and detection of two carlaviruses infecting cactus.

Two large contigs with sequence similarities to different carlaviruses were identified by high-throughput sequencing in samples from a cactus plant. The complete genomes of the two viruses, tentatively named "cactus carlavirus 1" (CCV-1) and "cactus carlavirus 2" (CCV-2), were determined to be 8,441 and 8,396 nucleotides long, respectively, excluding the poly(A) tail. These viruses have the typical genomic organization of members of the genus Carlavirus. CCV-1 appears to be a cactus isolate of the carlavirus HSO-2016a, with 90.1% nucleotide sequence identity between the two virus genomes, whereas CCV-2 may be classified as a member of a new species. The sequences of CCV-2 and other carlaviruses are 48.9-60.0% identical at the whole-genome level.