Isolation and identification of a novel rabies virus lineage in China with natural recombinant nucleoprotein gene

PLoS One. 2012;7(12):e49992. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0049992. Epub 2012 Dec 4.

Abstract

Rabies virus (RABV) causes severe neurological disease and death. As an important mechanism for generating genetic diversity in viruses, homologous recombination can lead to the emergence of novel virus strains with increased virulence and changed host tropism. However, it is still unclear whether recombination plays a role in the evolution of RABV. In this study, we isolated and sequenced four circulating RABV strains in China. Phylogenetic analyses identified a novel lineage of hybrid origin that comprises two different strains, J and CQ92. Analyses revealed that the virus 3' untranslated region (UTR) and part of the N gene (approximate 500 nt in length) were likely derived from Chinese lineage I while the other part of the genomic sequence was homologous to Chinese lineage II. Our findings reveal that homologous recombination can occur naturally in the field and shape the genetic structure of RABV populations.

Publication types

  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

  • Base Sequence
  • China
  • DNA Primers
  • Genes, Viral
  • Molecular Sequence Data
  • Nucleoproteins / genetics*
  • Phylogeny
  • Rabies virus / genetics
  • Rabies virus / isolation & purification*
  • Rabies virus / pathogenicity
  • Recombination, Genetic*
  • Reverse Transcriptase Polymerase Chain Reaction
  • Virulence

Substances

  • DNA Primers
  • Nucleoproteins

Associated data

  • GENBANK/GU345746
  • GENBANK/GU345747
  • GENBANK/GU345748
  • GENBANK/GU358653

Grants and funding

This work was supported by a Project of Shandong Province College Teacher Visiting Scholar and Technology Program and a Shandong Province Young and Middle-Aged Scientists Research Awards Fund (BS2009NY011) to CQH. The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.