A highly divergent picornavirus in an amphibian, the smooth newt (Lissotriton vulgaris).

Genetically highly divergent picornavirus (Newt/2013/HUN, KP770140) was detected using viral metagenomics in faecal samples of free-living smooth newts (Lissotriton vulgaris). Newt picornavirus was identified by reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) in six (25 %) of the 24 samples originating from individuals caught in two out of the six investigated natural ponds in Hungary. The first picornavirus in amphibians expands the host range of members of the Picornaviridae, and opens a new research field in picornavirus evolution in lower vertebrates. Newt picornavirus represents a novel species in a novel genus within the family Picornaviridae, provisionally named genus Ampivirus (amphibian picornavirus).

Divergent gyroviruses in the feces of Tunisian children.

The Gyrovirus genus consists of the immunosuppressive Chicken Anemia Virus (CAV) prototype and since 2011 three other viral species found in sera/tissues of chickens, human feces, and on human skin. Here the genomes of two other gyrovirus species were characterized in diarrhea samples from Tunisian children whose main ORFs shared amino acid identity of 46-59% with those of the previously characterized gyroviruses and were provisionally named GyV5 and GyV6. All currently known gyroviruses grouped into two clades with distinct genomic features including replacement of the VP2 overlapping Apoptin gene with a distinct ORF of unknown function. Previous reports of gyrovirus DNA in human blood and on human skins warrant studies of possible human tropisms for these newly characterized gyroviruses.