Family: Paramyxoviridae
Genus: Hoplichthysvirus
Distinguishing features
The only member of Hoplichthys hoplichthysvirus, the single species in the genus is Wēnlǐng hoplichthys paramyxovirus which is known only from a metagenomics sequence of 15,326 nt (MG600062) obtained from the gut of a fish in the genus Hoplichthys (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 (372 aa), four hypothetical proteins (332, 140, 204 and 199 aa), a presumed matrix protein (313 aa), a presumed fusion protein (594 aa), a putative haemagglutinin-neuraminidase (513 aa) and a presumed L protein (2055 aa), in that order. However, the order of the Fusion and the RBP proteins is unclear as what is presumed to be the fusion protein shows no sign of a F1-F2 cleavage site and the fusion related external F1 amino terminal motif, whereas these can be found in the presumed RBP protein.
Biology
The only known sequence was obtained from the gut of a fish in the genus Hoplichthys caught in either the Eastern China Sea or the Yellow Sea. It is unclear whether the viral sequence represents an actual viral isolate, nor whether the hoplichthyidid host from which the viral sequence was obtained represents the natural host of this putative virus.