A complete genome of a novel ectromelia virus isolated in Guangdong province, China.

Samples used for virus isolation were obtained from Rattus rattoides during a field investigation of scrub typhus in Guangzhou, Guangdong Province, in 2009. We inoculated the original samples onto Vero and HeLa cells. An obvious cytopathic Effect (CPE) was observed on day three from a spleen tissue samples collected from Rattus rattoides. Total genomic DNA was extracted from a 200 µL virus stock using the QIAamp DNA Mini Kit.Long reads were generated via the GridION sequencing platform, and genome assembly was conducted using Canu v2.2 and polished with NGS datasets. Genomic annotation was performed using Softberry FGENESV. Through Nanopore sequencing, a contiguous linear genomic sequence spanning 208,281 bp was obtained, leading to the identification of ECTV-C-Tan-GD01. This strain shows an A/T typical OPV composition of 67%. Evolutionary analysis with other ectromelia virus strains and representatives of other orthopoxviruses revealed that ECTV-C-Tan-GD01 clusters with other ECTV strains. The annotated ECTV-C-Tan-GD01 genome comprised 199 putative genes, including 1 gene truncated at the C-terminal, with 91 and 108 genes on the positive and negative strands, respectively.