Discovery of a novel alphavirus related to Eilat virus

Most alphaviruses are transmitted by arthropods and infect vertebrate hosts. An exception is Eilat virus (EILV), the only described alphavirus with a host range restricted to insects. We established a new generic reverse transcription PCR assay for alphaviruses and tested 8860 tropical mosquitoes. W...

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Veröffentlicht in:Journal of general virology Jg. 98; H. 1; S. 43
Hauptverfasser: Hermanns, Kyra, Zirkel, Florian, Kopp, Anne, Marklewitz, Marco, Rwego, Innocent B, Estrada, Alejandro, Gillespie, Thomas R, Drosten, Christian, Junglen, Sandra
Format: Journal Article
Sprache:Englisch
Veröffentlicht: England 01.01.2017
Schlagworte:
Alphavirus - classification
Alphavirus - genetics
Alphavirus - isolation & purification
Animals
Cluster Analysis
Cote d'Ivoire
Culex - virology
Genome, Viral
Phylogeny
Reverse Transcriptase Polymerase Chain Reaction - methods
RNA, Viral - genetics
Sequence Analysis, DNA
Sequence Homology, Amino Acid
Cote d'Ivoire
ISSN:1465-2099
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Zusammenfassung:Most alphaviruses are transmitted by arthropods and infect vertebrate hosts. An exception is Eilat virus (EILV), the only described alphavirus with a host range restricted to insects. We established a new generic reverse transcription PCR assay for alphaviruses and tested 8860 tropical mosquitoes. We detected a novel alphavirus, tentatively named Taï Forest alphavirus (TALV), in Culex decens mosquitoes collected in Ivory Coast. The full genome was sequenced, and closest similarity was found to EILV. Pairwise amino acid identities to EILV ranged between 67 and 88 % for the corresponding proteins, suggesting that TALV defines a proposed new alphavirus species. Phylogenetic analyses placed TALV as a sister species to EILV with a basal relationship to the western equine encephalitis virus complex. In comparison to the highly abundant insect-specific flaviviruses, insect-specific alphaviruses seem to be rare. This new PCR assay can detect novel alphaviruses and may facilitate the identification of additional new alphaviruses.
ISSN:1465-2099
DOI:10.1099/jgv.0.000694