Family: Paramyxoviridae

Genus: Cynoglossusvirus

Distinguishing features

The only member of Cynoglossus cynoglossusvirus, the single species in the genus, is Wēnlǐng tonguesole paramyxovirus which is known only from a metagenomics sequence of 15043 nt (MG600059) obtained from the gut of a flatfish in the genus Cynoglossus (Shi et al., 2018). The L protein amino acid sequence is phylogenetically distinct from that of all other known paramyxoviruses (Figure 3. Paramxyoviridae). 

Virion

Virions are unknown. 

Genome organization and replication

The genome contains ORFs encoding a presumed nucleoprotein (385 aa), four hypothetical proteins (114, 110, 280 and 116 aa), a presumed matrix protein (321 aa), a presumed fusion protein (536 aa), a putative glycoprotein (428 aa) and a presumed L protein (2125 aa), in that order. 

Biology

The only known sequence was obtained from the gut of a flatfish in the genus Cynoglossus caught in either the Eastern China Sea or the South China Sea. It is unclear whether the viral sequence represents an actual viral isolate, nor whether the cynoglossus fish from which the viral sequence was obtained represents the biologically relevant host of this putative virus.