title: Malakal virus from Africa and Kimberley virus from Australia are geographic variants of a widely distributed ephemerovirus.
abstract: Kimberley virus (KIMV) is an arthropod-borne rhabdovirus that was isolated in 1973 and on several subsequent occasions from healthy cattle, mosquitoes (Culex annulirostris) and biting midges (Culicoides brevitarsis) in Australia. Malakal virus (MALV) is an antigenically related rhabdovirus isolated in 1963 from mosquitoes (Mansonia uniformis) in Sudan. We report here the complete genome sequences of KIMV (15442 nt) and MALV (15444 nt). The genomes have a similar organisation (3'-l-N-P-M-G-G(NS)-α1-α2-β-γ-L-t-5') to that of bovine ephemeral fever virus (BEFV). High levels of amino acid identity in each gene, similar gene expression profiles, clustering in phylogenetic analyses of the N, P, G and L proteins, and strong cross-neutralisation indicate that KIMV and MALV are geographic variants of the same ephemerovirus that, like BEFV, occurs in Africa, Asia and Australia.
authors.affiliation: CSIRO Livestock Industries, Australian Animal Health Laboratory, Geelong VIC 3220, Australia.
authors.forename: Kim R
authors.initials: KR
authors.lastname: Blasdell
authors.forename: Rhonda
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Voysey
authors.forename: Dieter M
authors.initials: DM
authors.lastname: Bulach
authors.forename: Lee
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Trinidad
authors.forename: Robert B
authors.initials: RB
authors.lastname: Tesh
authors.forename: David B
authors.initials: DB
authors.lastname: Boyle
authors.forename: Peter J
authors.initials: PJ
authors.lastname: Walker
mesh_terms: D000349:Africa; D000595:Amino Acid Sequence; D000818:Animals; D001315:Australia; D002417:Cattle; D002460:Cell Line; D006224:Cricetinae; D019235:Ephemerovirus / Q000145:classification / Q000235:genetics* / Q000302:isolation & purification; D015870:Gene Expression; D020869:Gene Expression Profiling; D016679:Genome, Viral; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D005810:Multigene Family; D010802:Phylogeny; D058974:Phylogeography; D016415:Sequence Alignment; D017386:Sequence Homology, Amino Acid