New Viruses fromLacerta monticola(Serra da Estrela, Portugal): Further Evidence for a New Group of Nucleo-Cytoplasmic Large Deoxyriboviruses

Lizard erythrocytic viruses (LEVs) have previously been described inLacerta monticolafrom Serra da Estrela, Portugal. Like other known erythrocytic viruses of heterothermic vertebrates, these viruses have never been adapted to cell cultures and remain uncharacterized at the molecular level. In this study, we made attempts to adapt the virus to cell cultures that resulted instead in the isolation of a previously undetectedRanavirusclosely related to FV3. TheRanaviruswas subsequently detected by polymerase chain reaction (PCR) in the blood of infected lizards using primers for a conserved portion of theRanavirusmajor capsid protein gene. Electron microscopic study of thenew Ranavirusdisclosed, among other features, the presence of intranuclear viruses that may be related to an unrecognized intranuclear morphogenetic process. Attempts to detect by PCR a portion of the DNA polymerase gene of the LEV in infected lizard blood were successful. The recovered sequence had 65.2/69.4% nt/aa% homology with a previously detected sequence from a snake erythrocytic virus from Florida, which is ultrastructurally different from the studied LEV. These results further support the hypothesis that erythrocytic viruses are related to one another and may represent a new group of nucleo-cytoplasmic large deoxyriboviruses.