{
  "abstract": "Large-scale mining of public transcriptomic datasets can reveal viral diversity that remains invisible to conventional virus-surveillance approaches, while increasingly powerful structure-prediction methods provide a complementary route to characterizing highly divergent viral proteins. Here, we combine sequence detection, phylogenetic analysis, structural prediction, and host-association analyses to investigate the cryptic diversity and biology of a new clade of plant-associated lispi-like viruses. Analyses of RNA-sequencing datasets identified and enabled assembly of 87 lispi-like virus genomes associated with 75 plant hosts, expanding the known diversity of this new group by approximately 40-fold. The viruses share a conserved four-cistron genome organization, 3'-N-P2-P3-L-5'. Structural analyses provide functional insights into the four conserved proteins. P1 (N) adopts a canonical negative-strand RNA virus nucleocapsid architecture with conserved RNA-interacting residues and a predicted RNA-packaging configuration. P2 is exceptionally divergent; although a subset of structures resembles the ITPase/HAM1 fold. P3 forms a conserved trimeric coiled-coil architecture reminiscent of a viral fusion-protein stalk, but lacks the family-wide sequence features expected of a canonical membrane glycoprotein. P4 contains a structurally resolved Mononegavirales-type RNA-dependent-RNA-polymerase (RdRp) core with invariant catalytic motifs, including the characteristic GDN signature, whereas its accessory regions are substantially more divergent. Phylogenetic insights form a distinct monophyletic lineage sister to the predominantly invertebrate-associated Lispiviridae, supporting their recognition as a new proposed family Masuviridae, comprising 15 tentative genera. Genus-level clustering is accompanied by marked differences in host association, ranging from strong specialization to broader host ranges. Retrospective screening of public sequencing libraries further identified lispi-like virus sequences in 1,536 libraries representing 134 plant species, 11 plant families and 182 geographic locations, highlighting a substantial and geographically widespread cryptic virome. Together, these results establish Masuviridae as a deeply divergent lineage of plant-associated negative-sense RNA viruses and illustrate how the integration of sequence, structural, and large-scale transcriptomic analyses can move viral dark matter from detection towards evolutionary and functional characterization.",
  "abstract_shown": true,
  "affiliations": [
    "INTA, Argentina"
  ],
  "article_type": "New results",
  "arxiv": null,
  "author_total": 5,
  "authors": [
    {
      "name": "N. Bejerman"
    },
    {
      "name": "D. Huebert"
    },
    {
      "name": "R. Alvarez-Quinto"
    },
    {
      "name": "D. Quito-Avila"
    },
    {
      "affs": [
        0
      ],
      "name": "H. Debat"
    }
  ],
  "bibtex": "https://research.draconitic.com/paper/chdm56qj40mh1.bib",
  "cited_by": 0,
  "doi": "10.64898/2026.09.18.752651",
  "fulltext_url": "https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2026.09.18.752651v1.full",
  "id": "chdm56qj40mh1",
  "issns": [],
  "landing_url": "https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2026.09.18.752651v1",
  "language": null,
  "licence": "CC-BY-NC-ND",
  "licence_label": "CC BY-NC-ND",
  "licence_source": "article",
  "licence_url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/",
  "metadata_licence": null,
  "native_subjects": [
    [
      "biorxiv",
      "microbiology"
    ]
  ],
  "openalex": null,
  "pdf_url": "https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2026.09.18.752651v1.full.pdf",
  "pmcid": null,
  "pmid": null,
  "published": "2026-09-18",
  "publisher": null,
  "ris": "https://research.draconitic.com/paper/chdm56qj40mh1.ris",
  "sources": [
    {
      "first_seen": "2026-10-30T12:23:19Z",
      "native_id": "10.64898/2026.09.18.752651",
      "source": "biorxiv",
      "url": "https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2026.09.18.752651v1"
    }
  ],
  "subjects": [
    {
      "field": "biology",
      "origin": "biorxiv:microbiology",
      "subfield": "microbiology"
    }
  ],
  "title": "Data mining sheds light on a novel family of plant-associated negative-sense RNA viruses linked to lispiviruses",
  "title_text": "Data mining sheds light on a novel family of plant-associated negative-sense RNA viruses linked to lispiviruses",
  "type": "preprint",
  "updated_at": "2026-10-30T12:23:19Z",
  "url": "https://research.draconitic.com/paper/chdm56qj40mh1",
  "venue": "bioRxiv",
  "versions": [
    {
      "doi": "10.3390/v18101113",
      "pid": "6tj2dzbf7b9q1",
      "relation": "published-as",
      "title": "Data Mining Sheds Light on a Novel Family of Plant-Associated Negative-Sense RNA Viruses Linked to Lispiviruses.",
      "venue": "Viruses"
    }
  ]
}