title: Rabies virus isolates of India - simultaneous existence of two distinct evolutionary lineages.
abstract: Rabies is a fatal viral disease of serious public health implication. The disease is enzootic in India. In the present study, thirty six rabies virus isolates were obtained from terrestrial mammals of India during 2002-2012. Ecto-domain coding region of the glycoprotein gene from all the isolates were sequenced and the phylogenetic analysis was performed in relation to the global rabies and rabies related virus isolates. The Indian isolates grouped into two distinctly separate lineages with majority of the Indian isolates in Arctic like 1 lineage and the remaining isolates in sub-continental lineage. Isolates of the two distinct lineages were identified simultaneously from the same geographical region. Time scaled phylogenetic tree indicated that the sub-continental lineage of the virus is one of the earliest clade of rabies virus that diverged from bat rabies virus. On the contrary, the Arctic-like 1 lineage of India appeared to be a more recent divergence event. The amino acid sequence comparison revealed that all the major antigenic sites were almost conserved among the Indian isolates whereas few amino acid variations could be identified around site IIa, minor site I and IV. The dN/dS study based on G ecto-domain is in support of the earlier reports of strong purifying selection. In conclusion, it is evident that the Indian rabies virus isolates are of two major distinct lineages with distant phylogenetic and evolutionary relationship.
authors: Research and Development Laboratory, National Dairy Development Board, c/o Indian Immunologicals Limited, Gachibowli, Hyderabad 500032, India; Department of Biotechnology, Acharya Nagarjuna University, Guntur 522510, India.
authors: R V Chandrasekhar
authors: RV
authors: Reddy
authors: Translational Research Platform for Veterinary Biologicals, Chennai 600051, India.
authors: B
authors: B
authors: Mohana Subramanian
authors: Research and Development Laboratory, National Dairy Development Board, c/o Indian Immunologicals Limited, Gachibowli, Hyderabad 500032, India.
authors: K S N L
authors: KS
authors: Surendra
authors: Translational Research Platform for Veterinary Biologicals, Chennai 600051, India; National Institute of Animal Biotechnology, Miyapur, Hyderabad 500049, India.
authors: R P Aravindh
authors: RP
authors: Babu
authors: Research and Development Laboratory, National Dairy Development Board, c/o Indian Immunologicals Limited, Gachibowli, Hyderabad 500032, India.
authors: S K
authors: SK
authors: Rana
authors: Bioinformatics Group, Centre for Development of Advanced Computing, Pune 411007, India.
authors: K Sunitha
authors: KS
authors: Manjari
authors: Advisor (Animal Health), National Dairy Development Board, 33, Telecom nagar, Gachibowli, Hyderabad 500032, India. Electronic address: vasrini@nddb.coop.
authors: V A
authors: VA
authors: Srinivasan
mesh_terms: D000595:Amino Acid Sequence; D000818:Animals; D000956:Antigens, Viral / Q000737:chemistry / Q000235:genetics; D019143:Evolution, Molecular; D016679:Genome, Viral; D005843:Geography; D006801:Humans; D007194:India / Q000453:epidemiology; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D010802:Phylogeny; D058974:Phylogeography; D011818:Rabies / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000821:virology*; D011820:Rabies virus / Q000145:classification* / Q000235:genetics* / Q000302:isolation & purification; D016415:Sequence Alignment; D017422:Sequence Analysis, DNA
chemical_list: D000956:Antigens, Viral
keywords: Glyco-protein; India; Phylogeny; Rabies virus