title: Isolation and identification of a novel rabies virus lineage in China with natural recombinant nucleoprotein gene.
abstract: Rabies virus (RABV) causes severe neurological disease and death. As an important mechanism for generating genetic diversity in viruses, homologous recombination can lead to the emergence of novel virus strains with increased virulence and changed host tropism. However, it is still unclear whether recombination plays a role in the evolution of RABV. In this study, we isolated and sequenced four circulating RABV strains in China. Phylogenetic analyses identified a novel lineage of hybrid origin that comprises two different strains, J and CQ92. Analyses revealed that the virus 3' untranslated region (UTR) and part of the N gene (approximate 500 nt in length) were likely derived from Chinese lineage I while the other part of the genomic sequence was homologous to Chinese lineage II. Our findings reveal that homologous recombination can occur naturally in the field and shape the genetic structure of RABV populations.
authors.affiliation: Key Laboratory of Systems Biology in Universities of Shandong, College of Life Science, Shandong Normal University, Jinan, China. hchqiang@yahoo.com.cn
authors.forename: Cheng-Qiang
authors.initials: CQ
authors.lastname: He
authors.forename: Sheng-Li
authors.initials: SL
authors.lastname: Meng
authors.forename: Hong-Yan
authors.initials: HY
authors.lastname: Yan
authors.forename: Nai-Zheng
authors.initials: NZ
authors.lastname: Ding
authors.forename: Hong-Bin
authors.initials: HB
authors.lastname: He
authors.forename: Jia-Xin
authors.initials: JX
authors.lastname: Yan
authors.forename: Ge-Lin
authors.initials: GL
authors.lastname: Xu
mesh_terms: D001483:Base Sequence; D002681:China; D017931:DNA Primers; D005814:Genes, Viral; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D009698:Nucleoproteins / Q000235:genetics*; D010802:Phylogeny; D011820:Rabies virus / Q000235:genetics / Q000302:isolation & purification* / Q000472:pathogenicity; D011995:Recombination, Genetic; D020133:Reverse Transcriptase Polymerase Chain Reaction; D014774:Virulence
chemical_list: D017931:DNA Primers; D009698:Nucleoproteins