| Summary: | <p>Abstract</p> <p>The Israeli acute paralysis virus (IAPV) is a honeybee-infecting virus that was found to be associated with colony collapse disorder. The IAPV genome contains two genes encoding a structural and a nonstructural polyprotein. We applied a recently developed method for the estimation of selection in overlapping genes to detect purifying selection and, hence, functionality. We provide evolutionary evidence for the existence of a functional overlapping gene, which is translated in the +1 reading frame of the structural polyprotein gene. Conserved orthologs of this putative gene, which we provisionally call <it>pog </it>(<it>p</it>redicted <it>o</it>verlapping <it>g</it>ene), were also found in the genomes of a monophyletic clade of dicistroviruses that includes IAPV, acute bee paralysis virus, Kashmir bee virus, and <it>Solenopsis invicta </it>(red imported fire ant) virus 1.</p>
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