Camellia japonica plants manifesting a complex and variable spectrum of viral symptoms like chlorotic ringspots, necrotic rings, yellowing with necrotic rings, yellow mottle, leaves and petals deformations, and flower color-breaking have been studied since 1940, mainly by electron microscopic analyses; however, a strong correlation between the symptoms and one or more well-characterized viruses was never verified. In this work, samples collected from symptomatic plants were analyzed using the next-generation sequencing technique, and a complex virome composed of members of the Betaflexiviridae and Fimoviridae families was identified. In particular, the genomic fragments typical of the emaravirus group were organized in the genomes of two new emaraviruses species, tentatively named Camellia japonica–associated emaravirus 1 and 2. They are the first emaraviruses described in camellia plants and found in symptomatic plants. At the same time, in both symptomatic and asymptomatic plants, five betaflexivirus isolates were detected that, based on amino acid sequence comparisons, can be considered two new isolates of the recently characterized camellia ringspot–associated virus 1 and 2 (CRSaV-1/2). These recently identified betaflexiviruses associated with C. japonica disease show an unusual hyper-conservation of the coat protein at the amino acid level.

The GenBank/EMBL/DDBJ accession numbers of the sequences reported in this paper are MN385581, MN532567, MN532565, MN385582, MN532566, MN385573, MN385577, MN385574, MN385578, MN385575, MN385579, MN385576, MN385580, MN557024, MN557025, MN557026, MN557027, and MN557028.

自1940年以来，主要通过电子显微镜分析研究了茶花植物，这些植物表现出复杂多样的病毒症状谱，如绿化环斑，坏死环，坏死环发黄，斑驳，叶片和花瓣变形以及花朵断色。但是，从未证实症状与一种或多种特征明确的病毒之间有很强的相关性。在这项工作中，使用下一代测序技术对从有症状植物中收集的样品进行了分析，并形成了由Betaflexiviridae和Fimoviridae成员组成的复杂病毒体家庭被确定。特别是，在两个新的emaraviruses物种的基因组中组织了emaravirus组的典型基因组片段，暂定名为Camellia japonica-associated emaravirus 1和2。它们是在茶花植物中发现并在有症状植物中发现的第一种emaravirus。同时，在有症状和无症状的植物中，检测到五种betaflexivirus病毒分离物，根据氨基酸序列比较，它们可以被认为是最近鉴定的山茶花铃兰相关病毒1和2的两个新分离株（CRSaV-1 / 2 ）。与相关联的这些最近鉴定betaflexiviruses蚕蛾疾病显示在氨基酸水平不寻常的超保护外壳蛋白。

本文报道的序列的GenBank / EMBL / DDBJ登录号为MN385581，MN532567，MN532565，MN385582，MN532566，MN385573，MN385577，MN385574，MN385578，MN385575，MN385579，MN385576，MN385580，MN557024，MN557025、025和MN557028。