RT Journal Article SR Electronic(1) A1 Xue, Jian-Li A1 Cheng, Xiao-WenYR 2011 T1 Comparative analysis of a highly variable region within the genomes of Spodoptera frugiperda ascovirus 1d (SfAV-1d) and SfAV-1a JF Journal of General Virology, VO 92 IS 12 SP 2797 OP 2802 DO https://doi.org/10.1099/vir.0.035733-0 PB Microbiology Society, SN 1465-2099, AB The recently discovered ascoviruses have a worldwide distribution. Here we report a new member of the family Ascoviridae, Spodoptera frugiperda ascovirus 1d (SfAV-1d) with a variable region in the genome. Restriction fragment length polymorphism, Southern hybridization and genome sequencing analyses confirmed that SfAV-1d and the earlier reported SfAV-1a are closely related but are not identical. The genome size of SfAV-1d is approximately 100 kbp, which is about 57 kbp smaller than SfAV-1a. The SfAV-1d genome has a major deletion of 14 kbp that corresponds to one of the inverted repeat (IR) regions of SfAV-1a. Cloning and sequencing revealed that the region flanking the deletion within the SfAV-1d genome is highly variable. In all the variants of this region, the whole IR region is missing, with 88.2 % of the variants missing part of or the whole adjacent SfAV-1a ORF71, 94.1 % missing part of or the whole of adjacent ORF72 and 64.6 % missing part of or the whole of ORF73., UL https://www.microbiologyresearch.org/content/journal/jgv/10.1099/vir.0.035733-0