title: New hepatitis B virus of cranes that has an unexpected broad host range.
abstract: All hepadnaviruses known so far have a very limited host range, restricted to their natural hosts and a few closely related species. This is thought to be due mainly to sequence divergence in the large envelope protein and species-specific differences in host components essential for virus propagation. Here we report an infection of cranes with a novel hepadnavirus, designated CHBV, that has an unexpectedly broad host range and is only distantly evolutionarily related to avihepadnaviruses of related hosts. Direct DNA sequencing of amplified CHBV DNA as well a sequencing of cloned viral genomes revealed that CHBV is most closely related to, although distinct from, Ross' goose hepatitis B virus (RGHBV) and slightly less closely related to duck hepatitis B virus (DHBV). Phylogenetically, cranes are very distant from geese and ducks and are most closely related to herons and storks. Naturally occurring hepadnaviruses in the last two species are highly divergent in sequence from RGHBV and DHBV and do not infect ducks or do so only marginally. In contrast, CHBV from crane sera and recombinant CHBV produced from LMH cells infected primary duck hepatocytes almost as efficiently as DHBV did. This is the first report of a rather broad host range of an avihepadnavirus. Our data imply either usage of similar or identical entry pathways and receptors by DHBV and CHBV, unusual host and virus adaptation mechanisms, or divergent evolution of the host genomes and cellular components required for virus propagation.
authors.affiliation: Heinrich Pette Institute of Experimental Virology and Immunology, Hamburg. Institute of Zoo and Wildlife Research, Berlin, Germany.
authors.forename: Alexej
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Prassolov
authors.forename: Heinz
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Hohenberg
authors.forename: Tatyana
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Kalinina
authors.forename: Carola
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Schneider
authors.forename: Lucyna
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Cova
authors.forename: Oliver
authors.initials: O
authors.lastname: Krone
authors.forename: Kai
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Frölich
authors.forename: Hans
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Will
authors.forename: Hüseyin
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Sirma
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D001483:Base Sequence; D001717:Birds / Q000821:virology*; D004279:DNA, Viral / Q000737:chemistry; D016679:Genome, Viral; D015613:Hepadnaviridae / Q000145:classification* / Q000648:ultrastructure; D006513:Hepatitis B e Antigens / Q000097:blood; D016253:Microscopy, Immunoelectron; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D010802:Phylogeny; D016133:Polymerase Chain Reaction; D014759:Viral Envelope Proteins / Q000097:blood; D014771:Virion / Q000648:ultrastructure; D014779:Virus Replication
chemical_list: D004279:DNA, Viral; D006513:Hepatitis B e Antigens; C077433:Pre-S protein, Duck hepatitis B virus; D014759:Viral Envelope Proteins