title: Phylogenetic relationships among members of the genus Phlebovirus (Bunyaviridae) based on partial M segment sequence analyses.
abstract: Viruses in the Phlebovirus genus of the family Bunyaviridae cause clinical syndromes ranging from a short, self-limiting febrile illness to fatal haemorrhagic fever. The genus currently consists of 68 antigenically distinct virus serotypes, most of which have not been genetically characterized. RT-PCR with four 'cocktail' primers was performed to amplify a region of the M segment of the genome of 24 phleboviruses included in the sandfly fever Naples, sandfly fever Sicilian and Punta Toro serocomplexes. Partial M segment sequences were successfully obtained and phylogenetic analysis was performed. The three resultant genotypic lineages were consistent with serological data. The sequence divergences were 27.6 % (nucleotide) and 25.7 % (amino acid) within the Sicilian serocomplex, 33.7 % (nucleotide) and 34.4 % (amino acid) within the Naples serocomplex and 35.6 % (nucleotide) and 37.5 % (amino acid) within the Punta Toro serocomplex. Overall, the diversities among viruses of Sicilian, Naples and Punta Toro serocomplexes were 48.2 % and 57.6 % at the nucleotide and amino acid levels, respectively. This high genetic divergence may explain the difficulties in designing a consensus primer pair for the amplification of all the phleboviruses using RT-PCR. It also suggests that infection with one genotype may not completely immunize against infection with all other genotypes in a given serocomplex. These findings have implications for potential vaccine development and may help explain clinical reports of multiple episodes of sandfly fever in the same individual.
authors.affiliation: Institute of Virology, Medical School of Wuhan University, Wuhan, Hubei Province, PR of China.|Department of Pathology and Center for Tropical Diseases, University of Texas Medical Branch, Galveston, Texas 77555-0588, USA.
authors.forename: Dong-Ying
authors.initials: DY
authors.lastname: Liu
authors.affiliation: Department of Pathology and Center for Tropical Diseases, University of Texas Medical Branch, Galveston, Texas 77555-0588, USA.
authors.forename: Robert B
authors.initials: RB
authors.lastname: Tesh
authors.affiliation: Department of Pathology and Center for Tropical Diseases, University of Texas Medical Branch, Galveston, Texas 77555-0588, USA.
authors.forename: Amelia P A
authors.initials: APA
authors.lastname: Travassos da Rosa
authors.affiliation: Department of Pathology and Center for Tropical Diseases, University of Texas Medical Branch, Galveston, Texas 77555-0588, USA.
authors.forename: Clarence J
authors.initials: CJ
authors.lastname: Peters
authors.affiliation: Institute of Virology, Medical School of Wuhan University, Wuhan, Hubei Province, PR of China.
authors.forename: Zhanqiu
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Yang
authors.affiliation: Department of Pathology and Center for Tropical Diseases, University of Texas Medical Branch, Galveston, Texas 77555-0588, USA.
authors.forename: Hilda
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Guzman
authors.affiliation: Department of Internal Medicine, University of Texas Medical Branch, Galveston, Texas 77555-0588, USA.|Department of Pathology and Center for Tropical Diseases, University of Texas Medical Branch, Galveston, Texas 77555-0588, USA.
authors.forename: Shu-Yuan
authors.initials: SY
authors.lastname: Xiao
mesh_terms: D000595:Amino Acid Sequence; D000818:Animals; D001483:Base Sequence; D006224:Cricetinae; D017931:DNA Primers; D006023:Glycoproteins / Q000737:chemistry / Q000235:genetics; D006801:Humans; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D010217:Phlebotomus Fever / Q000821:virology*; D016856:Phlebovirus / Q000145:classification* / Q000235:genetics*; D010802:Phylogeny; D012367:RNA, Viral / Q000032:analysis / Q000235:genetics; D020133:Reverse Transcriptase Polymerase Chain Reaction; D016415:Sequence Alignment; D017361:Viral Nonstructural Proteins / Q000737:chemistry / Q000235:genetics; D014764:Viral Proteins / Q000737:chemistry / Q000235:genetics*
chemical_list: D017931:DNA Primers; D006023:Glycoproteins; D012367:RNA, Viral; D017361:Viral Nonstructural Proteins; D014764:Viral Proteins