Sequencing of picorna viruses and related viruses in the Teltowkanal, Germany

In this study, we investigate 239 complete and 274 partial genomes of the aquatic Picornavirales virome of the Teltow Canal in Berlin, Germany. This urban freshwater body is characterized by the predominance of marna-like viruses (30.8%) and dicistro-like viruses (19.1%) whereas picornaviruses, iflaviruses, solinvi-like viruses, polycipi-like viruses, and nora-like viruses are considerably less prevalent. Caliciviruses and secoviruses were absent in our sample. More than 100 viruses (20.8%) could not be assigned to any of the nine Picornavirales families. Thirty-three viruses of the Marnaviridae - mostly locarna-like viruses - exhibit a monocistronic genome layout. Beside a wealth of novel virus sequences, viruses with peculiar features are reported. Among these is a clade of untypeable marna-like viruses with dicistronic genomes but the capsid protein-encoding open reading frame located at the 5' part of their RNA. A virus with similar genome layout but clustering with dicistroviruses was also observed. We further detected monocistronic viruses with a polymerase gene related to aparaviruses. Detection of Aichi virus and five novel posa-like viruses indicates slight burden with municipal wastewater.