Section outline
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Chytorhabdovirus tiliae (genus Chytorhabdovirus, family Rhabdoviridae) is a single-stranded, unsegmented RNA virus with a a negative-sense orientation and 14,152 nucleotides [nt] in the coding region. The assumed genome organization is 3'-N-P-P3-M-G-p6-p6’-L-5'. The N gene encodes the putative nucleoprotein (59.1 kDa), P encodes the phosphoprotein (34.7 kDa), P3 encodes the movement protein (23.1 kDa), M encodes the matrix protein (23.1 kDa), G encodes a glycoprotein (64.4 kDa), and L encodes the viral RNA polymerase (247 kDa). P6 and P6’ are overlapping open reading frames (ORFs), which may encode gene products of 7.9 and 9.5 kDa, respectively, of unknown functions. The phylogenetic analyses of open reading frames of viral RNA-polymerase, glycoprotein, and nucleoprotein confirm that the virus is a member of the genus Cytorhabdovirus (Köpke et al. 2023). Studies on the morphology of the virus are lacking, but Chytorhabdovirus tiliae is likely to form enveloped bacilliform particles (60-75 nm) in the cytoplasm of infected mesophyll cells. Many epidemiological questions regarding the disease remain unanswered, as the virus was only recently identified as the putative causal agent.