title: Complete L segment coding-region sequences of Crimean Congo hemorrhagic fever virus strains from the Russian Federation and Tajikistan.
abstract: The large (L) RNA segment of Crimean Congo hemorrhagic fever (CCHF) virus strain AST/TI30908, isolated from pooled Hyalomma marginatum ticks collected in 2002 from the Astrakhan region of European Russia, was amplified piecemeal using reverse-transcription/polymerase chain reaction, followed by direct sequencing of gel-purified amplicons. After removal of 5' and 3' primer-generated termini, the assembled AST/TI30908 L segment sequence is 12112 nucleotides long, with 41.3% G + C content, and is greater than 87% and 96% identical at the nucleotide and translated amino acid levels, respectively, to partial or full-length CCHF virus L segment sequences deposited in GenBank. A complete L segment coding-region sequence for CCHF virus strain TAJ/HU8966, isolated from a patient in Tajikistan in 1990, was determined in a similar fashion. This L segment (12133 nucleotides long, 41.1% G + C content) shares 88% nucleotide identity with the full-length strain Matin from Pakistan, and 97% nucleotide identity with a partial L segment sequence of strain Khodzha from Uzbekistan. Strain TAJ/HU8966 shares at least 96% identity at the translated amino acid level with all other CCHF virus L segment sequences. Although, for the most part, CCHF virus L polyprotein primary sequences are uniformly well conserved, a region of marked variability was identified in the N-terminal half of the RNA-dependent RNA polymerase. This region, approximately 50 amino acids in length, is flanked by previously-reported arenavirus and bunyavirus-conserved regions, and may prove useful in CCHF diagnosis and viral taxonomy.
authors.affiliation: Department of Microbiology, University of New Mexico, Albuquerque, New Mexico, USA.
authors.forename: J D
authors.initials: JD
authors.lastname: Meissner
authors.forename: S S
authors.initials: SS
authors.lastname: Seregin
authors.forename: S V
authors.initials: SV
authors.lastname: Seregin
authors.forename: N V
authors.initials: NV
authors.lastname: Yakimenko
authors.forename: O I
authors.initials: OI
authors.lastname: Vyshemirskii
authors.forename: S V
authors.initials: SV
authors.lastname: Netesov
authors.forename: V S
authors.initials: VS
authors.lastname: Petrov
mesh_terms: D000595:Amino Acid Sequence; D000818:Animals; D003225:Hemorrhagic Fever Virus, Crimean-Congo / Q000235:genetics* / Q000302:isolation & purification; D006801:Humans; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D012367:RNA, Viral / Q000235:genetics; D012426:Russia; D017386:Sequence Homology, Amino Acid; D013620:Tajikistan; D013987:Ticks / Q000821:virology; D014764:Viral Proteins / Q000235:genetics
chemical_list: D012367:RNA, Viral; D014764:Viral Proteins