Sequence analysis of Giardia virus proteins by LC-MS/MS

Giardiasis, caused by the protozoan parasite Giardia duodenalis, is an intestinal diarrheal disease affecting almost one billion people worldwide. A small endosymbiotic dsRNA viruses, G. lamblia virus (GLV), genus Giardiavirus, family Totiviridae, might inhabit human and animal isolates of G. duodenalis. Three GLV genomes have been sequenced so far, and only one was intensively studied, moreover a positive correlation between GLV and parasite virulence is yet to be proved. To understand the biological significance of GLV infection in Giardia, the characterization of several GLV strains from naturally infected G. duodenalis isolates is necessary. In the contest of high-throughput sequencing of four GLVs strains, from Giardia isolates of human and animal origin, we report on a new, unclassified viral sequence (designed GdRV-2), unrelated to Giardiavirus, encoding and expressing for a single large protein with a RdRp domain homologous to Totiviridae and Botybirnaviridae. We have analyzed the sequence of the GLV capsid protein (CP) and RNA-dependent RNA polymerase (RdRp) by LC-MS/MS analysis using different enzymatic strategies.