Genomic characterization of two novel viruses infecting Barleria cristata L. from the genera Orthotospovirus and Polerovirus.

Barleria cristata L. has become naturalized in South Africa, where it is commonly used as an ornamental. In 2019, plants of B. cristata showing putative viral symptoms were collected from two locations in Gauteng, South Africa. RNAtag-seq libraries were prepared and sequenced using an Illumina HiSeq 2500 platform. De novo assembly of the resulting data revealed the presence of a novel member of the family Tospoviridae associated with the plants from both locations, and this virus was given the tentative name "barleria chlorosis-associated virus". Segments L, M, and S have lengths of 8752, 4760, and 2906 nt, respectively. Additionally, one of the samples was associated with a novel polerovirus, provisionally named "barleria polerovirus 1", with a complete genome length of 6096 nt. This is the first study to show the association of viruses with a member of the genus Barleria.