New astrovirus in human feces from Burkina Faso.
BACKGROUND
A significant fraction of cases of diarrhea, a leading cause of childhood mortality worldwide, remain unexplained.


OBJECTIVE
To identify viruses in unexplained cases of diarrhea using an unbiased metagenomics approach.


METHODS
Viral nucleic acids were enriched from the feces from 48 cases of unexplained diarrhea from Burkina Faso, sequenced, and compared against all known viral genomes.


RESULTS
The full genome of a highly divergent astrovirus was sequenced in a sample co-infected with parechovirus 1. RT-PCR identified a single astrovirus infection in these 48 patients indicating a low prevalence. Human astrovirus-BF34 was most closely related to mamastrovirus species 8 and 9 also found in human with which it shared 62%, 74%, and 57% amino acid identities over its protease, RNA dependent RNA polymerase and capsid proteins, respectively.


CONCLUSIONS
Burkina Faso astrovirus is proposed as prototype for a novel species in the genus Mamastrovirus, here tentatively called Mamastrovirus 20, representing the fifth human astrovirus species.
Blood Systems Research Institute, San Francisco, CA 94118, USA; Department of Laboratory Medicine, University of California at San Francisco, San Francisco, CA 94118, USA.
Tung Gia
TG
Phan
Division of Molecular Virology, Department of Clinical and Experimental Medicine, Linköping University, Linköping, Sweden.
Johan
J
Nordgren
Centre de Recherche Biomoléculaire Pietro Annigoni Saint Camille CERBA/LABIOGENE, Université de Ouagadougou, Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso.
Djeneba
D
Ouermi
Centre de Recherche Biomoléculaire Pietro Annigoni Saint Camille CERBA/LABIOGENE, Université de Ouagadougou, Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso.
Jacques
J
Simpore
Centre de Recherche Biomoléculaire Pietro Annigoni Saint Camille CERBA/LABIOGENE, Université de Ouagadougou, Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso.
Leon W
LW
Nitiema
Blood Systems Research Institute, San Francisco, CA 94118, USA.
Xutao
X
Deng
Blood Systems Research Institute, San Francisco, CA 94118, USA; Department of Laboratory Medicine, University of California at San Francisco, San Francisco, CA 94118, USA. Electronic address: delwarte@medicine.ucsf.edu.
Eric
E
Delwart
D019350:Astroviridae Infections / Q000821:virology*; D002050:Burkina Faso; D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D003967:Diarrhea / Q000821:virology*; D005243:Feces / Q000821:virology; D005260:Female; D016679:Genome, Viral; D006801:Humans; D007223:Infant; D008297:Male; D001257:Mamastrovirus / Q000145:classification* / Q000235:genetics / Q000302:isolation & purification*; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D012367:RNA, Viral / Q000235:genetics; D017422:Sequence Analysis, DNA
D012367:RNA, Viral
Astrovirus; Children; Diarrhea; Metagenomics; Species