Sequencing of Hepeliviruses of the Havel River and Teltowkanal, Germany

The order Hepelivirales comprises positive-strand RNA viruses of four families (Alphatetraviridae, Benyviridae, Hepeviridae and Matonaviridae). Illumina sequencing of virus genomes from water samples of the Havel river and the Teltowkanal in Berlin, Germany, revealed the presence of numerous unclassified hepe-like viruses. Here, we describe ten almost complete and 82 partial genomes of novel viruses presumably belonging to the order Hepelivirales. All but one of these viruses have only distant relationship to known members of this order. One virus clade exhibits an alphavirus-supergroup polymerase with permutated order of the conserved palm subdomain motivs which resembles the permutated polymerase of permutotetraviruses and birnaviruses.