Oryctes Nudivirus (OrNV) has been an effective biocontrol agent against the insect pest Oryctes rhinoceros (Coleoptera: Scarabaeidae) for decades, but there is evidence that resistance could be evolving in some host populations. We detected OrNv infection in O. rhinoceros from the Solomon Islands and used Oxford Nanopore Technologies (ONT) long-read sequencing to determine the full length of the virus genomic sequence isolated from an individual belonging to a mitochondrial lineage (CRB-G) that was previously reported as resistant to OrNV. The complete circular genome of the virus consisted of 125,917 nucleotides, encoding 130 open reading frames (ORFs) for proteins in the range ~5 kDa (51aa) to ~140 kDa (1280aa). This Solomon Islands isolate has high (99.85%) nucleotide sequence identity to the previously sequenced isolate PV505 from Southern Luzon, Philippines, and has 138 amino acid modifications when compared with the originally described full genome sequence of the Ma07 strain from Malaysia.

Complete genome sequence of Oryctes rhinoceros Nudivirus isolated from Coconut Rhinoceros Beetle in the Solomon Islands