Abstract
Microviricetes are small circular single-stranded DNA bacteriophages found in diverse environments, but their diversity in masked palm civet fecal viromes remains poorly characterized. Here, viral metagenomic analysis of five pooled fecal libraries from captive masked palm civets (Paguma larvata) recovered 14 high-quality Microviricetes genome candidates. Genome lengths ranged from 4996 to 6337 nt, with GC contents of 37.4–49.3%, and all genomes encoded homologues of VP1, VP2, and VP4. CheckV estimated completeness at 95.22–100.00% and classified all candidates as high-quality genomes. Comparative analysis identified five genome-organization patterns, while VP1 phylogeny placed the genomes within Gokushovirales and Alpavirales. Four of 24 additional VP1-containing contigs clustered with Betagokushoviridae references. VIRIDIC comparisons with 43 reference sequences showed that 13 genomes had maximum intergenomic similarities below the 80% species threshold, including eight below the 50% genus threshold. L13_863 shared 80.15% similarity with an unassigned reference genome but remained below 50% similarity to the included ICTV representatives. These findings support the presence of putative novel species and candidate novel genera and expand the known genomic diversity of Microviricetes associated with captive masked palm civet feces.