Potential for La Crosse virus segment reassortment in nature

Reese, Blitvich, Blair, Geske Dave, Beaty, Black

Description

The evolutionary success of La Crosse virus (LACV, family Bunyaviridae ) is due to its ability to adapt to changing conditions through intramolecular genetic changes and segment reassortment. Vertical transmission of LACV in mosquitoes increases the potential for segment reassortment. Studies were conducted to determine if segment reassortment was occurring in naturally infected Aedes triseriatus from Wisconsin and Minnesota in 2000, 2004, 2006 and 2007. Mosquito eggs were collected from various sites in Wisconsin and Minnesota. They were reared in the laboratory and adults were tested for LACV antigen by immunofluorescence assay. RNA was isolated from the abdomen of infected mosquitoes and portions of the small (S), medium (M) and large (L) viral genome segments were amplified by RT-PCR and sequenced. Overall, the viral sequences from 40 infected mosquitoes and 5 virus isolates were analyzed. Phylogenetic and linkage disequilibrium analyses revealed that approximately 25% of infected mosquitoes and viruses contained reassorted genome segments, suggesting that LACV segment reassortment is frequent in nature.

Informations

• Publié par: biomed
• Publié le: 01 janvier 2008
• Nombre de lectures: 14
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 1 Mo

Extrait

Virology Journal

BioMedCentral

Open Access Research Potential for La Crosse virus segment reassortment in nature 1,3 1,21 4 Sara M Reese, Bradley J Blitvich, Carol D Blair, Dave Geske, 1 1 Barry J Beaty*and William C Black IV

1 Address: Arthropodborneand Infectious Diseases Laboratory, Department of Microbiology, Immunology and Pathology, Colorado State 2 University, Fort Collins, Colorado, 805231692, USA ,Department of Veterinary Microbiology and Preventive Medicine, Iowa State University, 3 Ames, IA, 500111250, USA ,Division of VectorBorne Diseases, National Center for Infectious Disease Control and Prevention, Fort Collins, CO, 4 80522, USAand LaCrosse County Health Department, La Crosse, WI, 546013228, USA

Email: Sara M Reese  [e-mail]; Bradley J Blitvich  [e-mail]; Carol D Blair  [e-mail]; Dave Geske  [e-mail]crosse.wi.us; Barry J Beaty*  [e-mail]; William C Black  [e-mail] * Corresponding author

Published: 30 December 2008Received: 3 December 2008 Accepted: 30 December 2008 Virology Journal2008,5:164 doi:10.1186/1743422X5164 This article is available from: http://www.virologyj.com/content/5/1/164 © 2008 Reese et al; licensee BioMed Central Ltd. This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

Abstract The evolutionary success of La Crosse virus (LACV, familyBunyaviridae) is due to its ability to adapt to changing conditions through intramolecular genetic changes and segment reassortment. Vertical transmission of LACV in mosquitoes increases the potential for segment reassortment. Studies were conducted to determine if segment reassortment was occurring in naturally infectedAedes triseriatusfrom Wisconsin and Minnesota in 2000, 2004, 2006 and 2007. Mosquito eggs were collected from various sites in Wisconsin and Minnesota. They were reared in the laboratory and adults were tested for LACV antigen by immunofluorescence assay. RNA was isolated from the abdomen of infected mosquitoes and portions of the small (S), medium (M) and large (L) viral genome segments were amplified by RTPCR and sequenced. Overall, the viral sequences from 40 infected mosquitoes and 5 virus isolates were analyzed. Phylogenetic and linkage disequilibrium analyses revealed that approximately 25% of infected mosquitoes and viruses contained reassorted genome segments, suggesting that LACV segment reassortment is frequent in nature.

Background In the 1970s, La Crosse virus (LACV familyBunyaviridae, genusOrthobunyavirus) emerged as a significant human pathogen in the upper Midwestern United States, and it is now the most common cause of pediatric arboviral encephalitis in the U.S [1]. LACV is maintained primarily in cycles betweenAedes triseriatusand small mammals (usually chipmunks and tree squirrels).Aedes triseriatus develop a lifelong infection, and infected females can transovarially transmit (TOT) the virus to their progeny [2,3]. TOT is perhaps the most important mechanism for maintenance and amplification of LACV in nature [4,5].

LACV has a tripartite, negativesense RNA genome with the three segments designated large (L), medium (M), and small (S). The L segment encodes the RNAdependent RNA polymerase [6], the M segment encodes a precursor polypeptide that is posttranslationally cleaved to gener ate the G1 and G2 glycoproteins and the nonstructural protein NSm [710], and the S segment encodes the nucle ocapsid protein and the small nonstructural protein NSs in overlapping reading frames [8].

LACV exhibits considerable evolutionary potential in nature. There are distinct geographic genotypes of the

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