Characterization of Tula virus from common voles (microtus arvalis) in Poland: evidence for geographic-specific phylogenetic clustering.
Tula virus (TULV), a recently identified arvicolid rodent-borne hantavirus, is harbored by the European common vole (Microtus arvalis) in Central Russia and the Czech and Slovak Republics. We report the isolation and characterization of this hantavirus from M. arvalis captured in Poland, a country where human disease caused by hantaviruses has not been recognized. Of 34 arvicolid rodents (24 Clethrionomys glareolus, 9 M. arvalis, 1 Pitymys sp.) captured in Lodz and Tuszyn, Poland, during June to September 1995, sera from 3 M. arvalis and 3 C. glareolus contained IgG antibodies to Puumala virus (PUUV), as determined by an indirect immunofluorescent antibody assay. Alignment and comparison of the 1852-nucleotide S segment and a 1676-nucleotide region of the G2 glycoprotein-encoding M segment, amplified from lung tissues of two hantavirus-seropositive M. arvalis, revealed 83.9-85.2% and 82.3-83.5% sequence similarity, respectively, with TULV strains from Central Russia and the Czech and Slovak Republics. A > 98% sequence conservation was found at the amino acid level. Phylogenetic analysis indicated that the newly found TULV strains from Poland were closely related to, but distinct from, TULV from elsewhere in Europe.
Song
Jin-Won
JW
Department of Microbiology, College of Medicine, and Institute for Viral Diseases, Medical Science Research Center, Korea University, Seoul, Korea.
Baek
Luck Ju
LJ
Song
Ki-Joon
KJ
Skrok
Anna
A
Markowski
Janusz
J
Bratosiewicz-Wasik
Jolanta
J
Kordek
Radzislaw
R
Liberski
Pawel P
PP
Yanagihara
Richard
R
D000595:Amino Acid Sequence; D000818:Animals; D003411:Arvicolinae / Q000821:virology*; D016000:Cluster Analysis; D004279:DNA, Viral / Q000032:analysis; D006476:Orthohantavirus / Q000145:classification* / Q000235:genetics* / Q000302:isolation & purification; D018778:Hantavirus Infections / Q000662:veterinary* / Q000821:virology; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D019251:Nucleocapsid / Q000235:genetics; D010802:Phylogeny; D011044:Poland; D012376:Rodent Diseases / Q000821:virology*
D004279:DNA, Viral