The genomic characteristics and pathogenicity of a mammalian orthoreovirus within a new lineage from wild pika in plateau

Kexin Zong; Yuanyuan Guo; Jingdong Song; Maoshun Liu; Junfeng Hao; Jie Zhang; Xin Li; Shiyan Zhu; Shuting Huo; Ziqian Xu; Peipei Liu; Yingze Zhao; Yuhai Bi; Jiapeng Qu; George F Gao; Jun Liu

doi:10.1016/j.virs.2023.11.001

The genomic characteristics and pathogenicity of a mammalian orthoreovirus within a new lineage from wild pika in plateau

Virol Sin. 2023 Dec;38(6):877-888. doi: 10.1016/j.virs.2023.11.001. Epub 2023 Nov 4.

Authors

Kexin Zong¹, Yuanyuan Guo², Jingdong Song², Maoshun Liu¹, Junfeng Hao³, Jie Zhang², Xin Li², Shiyan Zhu⁴, Shuting Huo², Ziqian Xu², Peipei Liu², Yingze Zhao², Yuhai Bi⁴, Jiapeng Qu⁵, George F Gao⁶, Jun Liu⁷

Affiliations

¹ School of Laboratory Medicine and Life Sciences, Wenzhou Medical University, Wenzhou, 325035, China; NHC Key Laboratory of Biosafety, National Institute for Viral Disease Control and Prevention, Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention (China CDC), Beijing, 102206, China.
² NHC Key Laboratory of Biosafety, National Institute for Viral Disease Control and Prevention, Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention (China CDC), Beijing, 102206, China.
³ Laboratory Animal Center, Institute of Biophysics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100101, China.
⁴ CAS Key Laboratory of Pathogen Microbiology and Immunology, Institute of Microbiology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100101, China.
⁵ Northwest Institute of Plateau Biology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Xining, 810001, China. Electronic address: jpqu@nwipb.cas.cn.
⁶ School of Laboratory Medicine and Life Sciences, Wenzhou Medical University, Wenzhou, 325035, China; NHC Key Laboratory of Biosafety, National Institute for Viral Disease Control and Prevention, Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention (China CDC), Beijing, 102206, China; CAS Key Laboratory of Pathogen Microbiology and Immunology, Institute of Microbiology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100101, China; Research Unit of Adaptive Evolution and Control of Emerging Viruses (2018RU009), Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences, Beijing, 100021, China. Electronic address: gaofu@chinacdc.cn.
⁷ School of Laboratory Medicine and Life Sciences, Wenzhou Medical University, Wenzhou, 325035, China; NHC Key Laboratory of Biosafety, National Institute for Viral Disease Control and Prevention, Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention (China CDC), Beijing, 102206, China; Research Unit of Adaptive Evolution and Control of Emerging Viruses (2018RU009), Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences, Beijing, 100021, China. Electronic address: liujun@ivdc.chinacdc.cn.

Abstract

Emerging and re-emerging viruses from wild animals have seriously threatened the health of humans and domesticated animals in recent years. Herein, we isolated a new mammalian orthoreovirus (MRV), Pika/MRV/GCCDC7/2019 (PMRV-GCCDC7), in the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau wild pika (Ochotona curzoniae). Though the PMRV-GCCDC7 shows features of a typical reovirus with ten gene segments arranged in 3:3:4 in length, the virus belongs to an independent evolutionary branch compared to other MRVs based on phylogenetic tree analysis. The results of cellular susceptibility, species tropism, and replication kinetics of PMRV-GCCDC7 indicated the virus could infect four human cell lines (A549, Huh7, HCT, and LoVo) and six non-human cell lines, including Vero-E6, LLC-MK2, BHK-21, N2a, MDCK, and RfKT cell, derived from diverse mammals, i.e. monkey, mice, canine and bat, which revealed the potential of PMRV-GCCDC7 to infect a variety of hosts. Infection of BALB/c mice with PMRV-GCCDC7 via intranasal inoculation led to relative weight loss, lung tissue damage and inflammation with the increase of virus titer, but no serious respiratory symptoms and death occurred. The characterization of the new reovirus from a plateau-based wild animal has expanded our knowledge of the host range of MRV and provided insight into its risk of trans-species transmission and zoonotic diseases.

Keywords: Cellular tropism and pathogenicity; Emerging viruses; Genomic characteristics; Mammalian orthoreovirus (MRV); Plateau pika.

MeSH terms

Animals
Animals, Wild
Dogs
Genomics
Lagomorpha* / metabolism
Mice
Orthoreovirus, Mammalian* / genetics
Phylogeny
Virulence