Culex flavivirus isolates from mosquitoes in Guatemala.
A new strain of Culex flavivirus (family Flaviviridae, genus Flavivirus, CxFV), an insect virus first described in Japan, was isolated from adult Culex quinquefasciatus Say (Diptera: Culicidae) collected in 2006 from Izabal Department on the Caribbean coast of Guatemala. Mosquito pools were assayed for flavivirus RNA by using flavivirus group-specific primers that amplified a 720-bp region of the nonstructural (NS) 5 gene by standard reverse transcriptase-polymerase chain reaction. From 210 pools (1,699 mosquitoes), eight tested positive, and six of these mosquito pools produced virus isolates in Aedes albopictus Skuse C6/36 cells. Nucleotide sequence comparison of the eight flavivirus RNA-positive pools showed that there was 100% identity among them, and phylogenetic analysis of the NS5 and envelope gene regions indicated that they represent a strain of the recently described CxFV from Japan. This is the first report of an insect flavivirus from Central America.
Morales-Betoulle
M E
ME
Centro de Estudios en Salud, CDC-CAP, Universidad del Valle de Guatemala, 11 calle 15-79 zona 15, Vista Hermosa III, Guatemala, Guatemala. emorales@gt.cdc.gov
Monzón Pineda
M L
ML
Sosa
S M
SM
Panella
N
N
López
M R B
MR
Cordón-Rosales
C
C
Komar
N
N
Powers
A
A
Johnson
B W
BW
D000818:Animals; D003465:Culex / Q000821:virology*; D005260:Female; D005416:Flavivirus / Q000235:genetics / Q000302:isolation & purification*; D006166:Guatemala; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D010802:Phylogeny; D012367:RNA, Viral / Q000235:genetics; D016415:Sequence Alignment; D014759:Viral Envelope Proteins / Q000235:genetics; D017361:Viral Nonstructural Proteins / Q000235:genetics
D012367:RNA, Viral; D014759:Viral Envelope Proteins; D017361:Viral Nonstructural Proteins