Sequence analysis of a Torque teno canis virus isolated in China

► Torque teno canis virus is present in China and the positive rate is relatively high. ► The genome of LDL strain of Torque teno canis virus is more smaller than the human TTV genomes. ► There is a long GC-rich stretch in the middle of the UTR of LDL strain of Torque teno canis virus. ► TTVs that infect lower animals have a distant genetic relationship with TTV that infect higher animals. In the present study, a total of 158 fecal samples were collected from diarrheal dogs younger than 1 year old in pet clinic in China. 20 specimens (20/158, 13%) were positive for Torque teno canis virus DNA using detection PCR. One representative positive isolate designated LDL was randomly selected, cloned and sequenced. The complete genome of the LDL Chinese strain was 2799 nucleotides in length and contains three open reading frames (ORFs), which encode 576 (ORF1), 101 (ORF2), and 243 (ORF3) aa. Compared with the human and other animal TTV genomes, the genome of the LDL strain is clearly smaller and shares 95% identity with Japanese cf-TTV10 strain (AB076002). Phylogenetic analysis showed that the present Chinese Torque teno canis virus LDL strain was also closely clustered with the previous Japanese cf-TTV10 strain, and formed a different branch together with Torque teno sus viruses 1 and 2 compared with other Torque teno viruses, Torque teno mini virus, and Torque teno midi virus. Our study demonstrated that Torque teno canis virus is present in China.