Molecular characterization and phylogenetic analysis of deformed wing viruses isolated from South Korea

Deformed wing virus (DWV) is one of the most common viral infection in honeybees. Phylogenetic trees were constructed for 16 partial nucleotide sequences of the structural polyprotein region and the RNA helicase region of South Korean DWVs. The sequences were compared with 10 previously reported DWV sequences from different countries and the sequences of two closely related viruses, Kakugo virus (KGV) and Varroa destructor virus-1 (VDV-1). The phylogeny based on these two regions, the Korean DWV genomes were highly conserved with 95-100% identity, while they also shared 93-97% similarity with genotypes from other countries, although they formed a separate cluster. To investigate this phenomenon in more detail, the complete DWV genome sequences of Korea-1 and Korea-2 were determined and aligned with six previously reported complete DWV genome sequences from different countries, as well as KGV and VDV-1, and a phylogenetic tree was constructed. The two Korean DWVs shared 96.4% similarity. Interestingly, the Korea-2 genome was more similar to the USA (96.5%) genome than the Korea-1. The Korean genotypes highly conserved with USA (96%) but low similarity with the United Kingdom3 (UK3) genome (89%). The end of the 5′ untranslated region (UTR), the start of the open reading frame (ORF) region, and the 3′ UTR were variable and contained several substitutions/transitions. This phenomenon may be explained by intramolecular recombination between the Korean and other DWV genotypes.