Abstract
The family Hepeviridae includes several positive-stranded RNA viruses, which infect a wide range of mammalian species, chicken, and trout. However, few hepatitis E viruses (HEVs) have been characterized from invertebrates. In this study, a hepevirus, tentatively named Crustacea hepe-like virus 1 (CHEV1), from the economically important crustacean, the giant freshwater prawn Macrobrachium rosenbergii, was characterized. The complete genome consisted of 7750 nucleotides and had a similar structure to known hepatitis E virus genomes. Phylogenetic analyses suggested it might be a novel hepe-like virus within the family Hepeviridae. To our knowledge, this is the first hepe-like virus characterized from crustaceans.