title: First detection of the Africa/Caribbean/Latin American subtype of Culex flavivirus in Asian country, Taiwan.
abstract: Culex flavivirus (CxFV), a member of the genus flavivirus, is a novel insect-specific flaviviruses that can be divided into two subtypes, the cytopathic Asia/U.S. and the noncytopathic Africa/Caribbean/Latin American subtypes. The CxFV circulates in several Asian countries, and here we conducted the first study investigating CxFV in Taiwan. A total of 14,016 mosquitoes were collected between 2010 and 2012 and 3.4% (6/179) of the pools were CxFV-positive. The phylogenetic analyses indicate that the Taiwan isolates are closely related to the Africa/Caribbean/Latin American subtype, but form an independent cluster. In the cytology experiments, the CxFV Taiwan isolate infected only mosquito cells and caused cell-cell fusion that might be associated with a unique glycine residue at position 117 within the envelope protein, which is shared with the cytopathic effect-causing Asia/US subtype. This study marks the first time the Africa/Caribbean/Latin American subtype of CxFV has been identified in an Asian country and grouped into a novel cluster.
authors: Graduate Institute of Microbiology and Public Health, College of Veterinary Medicine, National Chung Hsing University, Taichung, Taiwan.
authors: Yi-Ying
authors: YY
authors: Chen
authors: Jen-Wei
authors: JW
authors: Lin
authors: Yi-Chin
authors: YC
authors: Fan
authors: Wu-Chun
authors: WC
authors: Tu
authors: Gwong-Jen J
authors: GJ
authors: Chang
authors: Shyan-Song
authors: SS
authors: Chiou
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D001483:Base Sequence; D003465:Culex / Q000821:virology*; D005416:Flavivirus / Q000145:classification / Q000235:genetics / Q000302:isolation & purification*; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D010802:Phylogeny; D012367:RNA, Viral / Q000737:chemistry / Q000235:genetics; D020133:Reverse Transcriptase Polymerase Chain Reaction; D016415:Sequence Alignment; D017422:Sequence Analysis, DNA; D013624:Taiwan
chemical_list: D012367:RNA, Viral