title: Niakha virus: a novel member of the family Rhabdoviridae isolated from phlebotomine sandflies in Senegal.
abstract: Members of the family Rhabdoviridae have been assigned to eight genera but many remain unassigned. Rhabdoviruses have a remarkably diverse host range that includes terrestrial and marine animals, invertebrates and plants. Transmission of some rhabdoviruses often requires an arthropod vector, such as mosquitoes, midges, sandflies, ticks, aphids and leafhoppers, in which they replicate. Herein we characterize Niakha virus (NIAV), a previously uncharacterized rhabdovirus isolated from phebotomine sandflies in Senegal. Analysis of the 11,124 nt genome sequence indicates that it encodes the five common rhabdovirus proteins with alternative ORFs in the M, G and L genes. Phylogenetic analysis of the L protein indicate that NIAV's closest relative is Oak Vale rhabdovirus, although in this analysis NIAV is still so phylogenetically distinct that it might be classified as distinct from the eight currently recognized Rhabdoviridae genera. This observation highlights the vast, and yet not fully recognized diversity, of this family.
authors.affiliation: Center for Biodefense and Emerging Infectious Diseases and Department of Pathology, Galveston, TX 77555-0609, USA. nivasila@utmb.edu
authors.forename: Nikos
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Vasilakis
authors.forename: Steven
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Widen
authors.forename: Sandra V
authors.initials: SV
authors.lastname: Mayer
authors.forename: Robert
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Seymour
authors.forename: Thomas G
authors.initials: TG
authors.lastname: Wood
authors.forename: Vsevolov
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Popov
authors.forename: Hilda
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Guzman
authors.forename: Amelia P A
authors.initials: AP
authors.lastname: Travassos da Rosa
authors.forename: Elodie
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Ghedin
authors.forename: Edward C
authors.initials: EC
authors.lastname: Holmes
authors.forename: Peter J
authors.initials: PJ
authors.lastname: Walker
authors.forename: Robert B
authors.initials: RB
authors.lastname: Tesh
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D016000:Cluster Analysis; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D016366:Open Reading Frames; D010802:Phylogeny; D011576:Psychodidae / Q000821:virology*; D012367:RNA, Viral / Q000235:genetics; D012209:Rhabdoviridae / Q000145:classification* / Q000235:genetics / Q000302:isolation & purification*; D012675:Senegal; D017422:Sequence Analysis, DNA
chemical_list: D012367:RNA, Viral
keywords: Complement fixation; Niakha virus (NIAV); Phlebotomine sandflies; Rhabdoviridae; West Africa