title: Detection strategies of tick-borne encephalitis virus in Swedish Ixodes ricinus reveal evolutionary characteristics of emerging tick-borne flaviviruses.
abstract: The flaviviral tick-borne encephalitis virus (TBEV) is a human pathogen having significant impact on public health. The geographical distribution of TBEV and TBEV-like viruses is increasing, which makes it important to characterise the natural virus populations. Here we present four RT-PCR strategies designed for detection of broad types of tick-borne flaviviruses. Sequence information on more than 32% of a TBEV genome was generated from a small pool of ticks collected in the Stockholm archipelago on the island of Torö. The sequences were characterised and compared with those of other tick-borne flaviviruses, which classified the virus as Western European TBEV.
authors.affiliation: School of Life Sciences, Södertörns University College, Huddinge, Sweden.
authors.forename: W
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Melik
authors.forename: A S
authors.initials: AS
authors.lastname: Nilsson
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Johansson
mesh_terms: D020121:5' Untranslated Regions / Q000235:genetics; D000818:Animals; D001483:Base Sequence; D017931:DNA Primers; D004669:Encephalitis Viruses, Tick-Borne / Q000145:classification / Q000235:genetics* / Q000302:isolation & purification; D004784:Environmental Monitoring; D019143:Evolution, Molecular; D018884:Ixodes / Q000821:virology*; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D010802:Phylogeny; D012367:RNA, Viral / Q000235:genetics / Q000302:isolation & purification; D020133:Reverse Transcriptase Polymerase Chain Reaction / Q000379:methods; D016415:Sequence Alignment; D013045:Species Specificity; D013548:Sweden; D014759:Viral Envelope Proteins / Q000235:genetics
chemical_list: D020121:5' Untranslated Regions; D017931:DNA Primers; D012367:RNA, Viral; D014759:Viral Envelope Proteins